March 29, 2024

Visit a Museum & Help Feed Local Families

Donations

St. Mary’s Caring Soup Kitchen wants to help feed residents — most especially local children — in need during the county schools’ spring break week through its Feed the Families program.

Feed the Families program provides groceries for the poorest families at three Title 1 schools in St. Mary’s County.

The St. Mary’s County Museum Division is partnering with soup kitchen by encouraging visitors to bring a nonperishable food items to either St. Clement’s Island Museum or Piney Point Lighthouse Museum during regular daily museum hours from Saturday, February 29, through Sunday, March 29, 2020, and they will receive free admission.

Though a minimum of one food item per person will be accepted in order to receive free admission (i.e., a family of four must have at least four donated items), the public is encouraged to bring as much as they can contribute. Preferred items include pancake syrup, cereal, tuna, ramen noodles, canned chicken, hot chocolate packets, pasta sauce, rice, pancake mix, and other similar foods.

St. Mary’s Caring Soup Kitchen, founded in 1993 under the name Mary’s Song, is a small community-based nonprofit organization serving the underprivileged in St. Mary’s County. Though their primary mission is to serve breakfast and lunch, free of charge, Monday through Saturday, they operate many other programs of service, including those that provide to food-insecure families and children at local schools.

Kristine Millen, executive director for the soup kitchen, is ecstatic to continue partnering with the Museum Division, seeing how well the first food collection went in December 2019 during the museums’ holiday open houses.

“We are thrilled that the Museum Division will continue working with us on our Feed the Family program when our schools go on spring break. Our mission is to provide free meals to anyone in need, no questions asked, serving all with a spirit of compassion, dignity and respect, so every little bit helps to make sure no one goes hungry during this time,” Ms. Millen said.

In 2019, St. Mary’s Caring Soup Kitchen provided 42,000 free meals to needy local individuals, children, and families. It operates a facility on Great Mills Road and large number of programs with a very active volunteer board of directors, two part-time staff members, and about 100 regular volunteers. They are completely independent and are not directly funded by any larger parent organization.

The museums are open daily, noon to 4 pm until March 25, and from 10 am to 5 pm from March 26 until March 29.

For more information about the work St. Mary’s Caring Soup Kitchen does for the residents of St. Mary’s County, or how you can volunteer or donate, visit the group’s website.

Leave A Comment