Outreach

The signature program of the Hunger Coalition of the Lowcountry

WHAT IS BACKPACK BUDDIES?

Backpack Buddies of Hilton Head was designed to fight weekend hunger and has grown to help children in all public schools on Hilton Head Island. Elementary aged children at partner schools receive nutritious food each Friday during the school year. Children in middle and high school are offered snack packs during the school day whenever needed. Many of the children in our community rely on free or reduced cost meals they receive at school and food at home can be unreliable. Backpack Buddies of Hilton Head works to fill that gap by providing nutritious, child-friendly food for school children to take home over the weekend and older children to have during the week. They are 100% volunteer run by a multi-faith alliance of community volunteers who work together to address hunger issues in the Lowcountry. On any given day of the week area churches and synagogues are filled with volunteers packing food bags, writing grants, ordering food supplies, and organizing efforts to feed more children

What Do We Do?

Backpack Buddies of Hilton Head provides food to qualifying students at Hilton Head Island public schools free of charge.  Food is distributed by school staff and faculty each week during the school year. Fresh produce bags are distributed to children in the tutoring program at Neighborhood Outreach Connection once a week.
During the summer months, healthy snacks and produce is supplied to programs like The Boys and Girls Club and Neighborhood Outreach Connection.

How It Works

• Food is ordered in bulk
• Volunteers assemble the student “packs” and deliver them in bins to the schools
• Elementary school social workers distribute the packs each Friday along with fresh fruit and vegetable
• Middle and High school students are offered grab-and-go snack bags at school by the nurse
• Local growers and markets supply the fresh produce that is packed and distributed to students in the Neighborhood Outreach Tutoring Program

How does St. Andrew By-The-Sea UMC Help?

St. Andrew is a Founding Partner Congregation providing a location for storing food, bag packing, and volunteers, as well as contributing financially to the program.
Backpack Buddies Sunday is coming August 25, 2024.

Volunteers are the heart and soul of Backpack Buddies of Hilton Head

Want to join the St. Andrew team? Contact Joe Kerr at jandskerr@gmail.com
Visit backpackbuddieshh.org for more information.

Book discussion hosted
by bridge Builders
Love is the Way – Holding on to Hope in Troubling Times 
by Bishop Michael Curry
Monday, September 9, 2024
11:00 am / Celebration Center Rm C111

Walk the path of love with one of the warmest, most beloved spiritual leaders of our time, and learn how to put faith into action. As the descendant of slaves and the son of a civil rights activist, Bishop Michael Curry’s life illustrates massive changes in our times. Much of the world met Bishop Curry when he delivered his sermon on the redemptive power of love at the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at Windsor Castle. Here, he expands on his message of hope in an inspirational road map for living the way of love, illuminated with moving lessons from his own life. Through the prism of his faith, ancestry, and personal journey, Love Is the Way shows us how America came this far and, more important, how to go a whole lot further. Everyone is welcome for this timely conversation as we all “hold on to hope in troubling times.” No RSVP required.

Bridge Builders
The Bridge Builders’ purpose is to explore, better understand and help educate others on the issues of racism and inequality while ensuring that the goals and objectives related to racism and inequality are grounded in scripture and to help develop and promote systems for addressing and overcoming racism and inequality.

Each spring, the committee hosts a lecture series at the church for the entire community. The Dr. Rev. Julius Scott Lecture Series is named after one of its founding members, the late Dr. Julius S. Scott, Jr., a lifelong educator and civil rights advocate, and is one way the group offers community-wide seminars and conferences. Past guest speakers have been Ahmad Ward, Executive Director of the Historic Mitchelville Freedom Park, and Author, Educator and Activist, Dr. Millicent Brown.

Pastor Emeritus, Dr. Rev. Julius S. Scott Jr.

Dr. Rev. Julius Scott, Jr., served as Pastor Emeritus at St. Andrew By-The-Sea, helped form Bridge Builders, and was an active member. He and his wife, Ann, joined St. Andrew in 1994. In memory and honor of Dr. Scott the Bridge Builders named its annual lecture series the Dr. Rev. Julius S. Scott Lecture Series. The event brings in a high-profile speaker to present a program at the church, where the entire community is invited.

Dr. Scott had a long history of serving as an advocate for justice, civil rights, and education. He earned degrees in sociology and religion from Wiley College (with distinction), Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, and Brown University before earning a doctoral degree in Social Ethics at Boston University. His interest in non-violent peaceful protest led him to India to study the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, and after leaving the seminary, he served three years as a teacher and missionary in Hyderabad, India.

As a professor of sociology at Wiley College, Boston University, Atlanta University, and Spelman College, Dr. Scott lived his passion for education, bringing out the best in his students by demanding excellence. He interspersed his teaching duties with acting as Director of the Wesley Foundation at Texas Southern University, and chaplaincies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Brown University, where he honed an aptitude for institutional administration. After serving as a leader in a number of educational and social justice institutions in Atlanta, GA, including Director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, he later moved to Augusta, GA, where he began his first term as president of Paine College (1975-1982). In August 1988, he returned to Paine College as its twelfth president, holding an unusual second term at the same institution until his retirement in 1994. He also served as Interim President at Albany State University (GA); Wiley College (TX); Philanders Smith University (AR); Savannah State University (GA); and the Medical College of Georgia (now Georgia Health Sciences University).

Dr. Scott served at the Greater Board of Higher Education (GBHEM) in the 1980s and played a critical role in expanding the agency’s international footprint, including the establishment of the Africa University. He wrote GBHEM’s first international strategy and worked with former GBHEM general secretary Rev. Dr. F. Thomas Trotter to lobby the 1984 General Conference for authorization to implement it. When authorization was granted, Scott led GBHEM’s new Global Higher Education Committee and began putting the strategy into action. He helped lay the foundation for what is now the International Association of Methodist Schools, Colleges and Universities (IAMSCU).

“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” — John 13:34

Stay tuned for upcoming meetings, events and programs. For more information about Bridge Builders, contact the church at standrewbythesea@gmail.com.

The Annual Community Thanksgiving Dinner is co-sponsored by St. Andrew By-The-Sea United Methodist Church and Hudson’s Seafood House on the Docks.

A free traditional Thanksgiving meal with all the trimmings is served family-style to all who attend. Visitors, residents, singles, couples, children, and entire families- everyone is welcome!

The concept for the Community Thanksgiving Dinner began with a 1998 article in the Island Packet that described lonely locals who had no place to go on Thanksgiving Day. Early the following year, Brian Carmines, then-owner of Hudson’s, Allan LaCoe, and Betsy Doughtie, the former executive director of the Deep Well Project, met to discuss opportunities to organize a community-wide event.

St. Andrew By-The-Sea United Methodist Church soon signed on to spearhead the volunteer organization, and Hudson’s offered to host the first Dinner. Five hundred meals were served that Thanksgiving Day in 1999.

More than 300 volunteers – many from St. Andrew By-The-Sea UMC – now contribute their time by assisting with parking, welcoming guests, serving the meals and a variety of other tasks. Many volunteers have participated in the event for years, and the volunteer roster is full by mid-October. The day is filled with delicious food, Southern hospitality, fellowship, and entertainment.

Held on Thanksgiving Day at Hudson’s Seafood House on the Docks
One Hudson Road (off Squire Pope Road), Hilton Head Island, South Carolina
11:00 am-3:00 pm
Event Website
Facebook Page
Email
843-505-1370

Donations benefit local nonprofits Bluffton Self Help, Deep Well Project, and Second Helpings.

Christmas Grace is a very special St. Andrew ministry that allows disadvantaged parents in our island community to choose Christmas gifts for their children and then celebrate together as families at a fun-packed Christmas party/fiesta, this year on Sunday, December 8, 2024. The party will feature pancakes, family portraits, crafts, gift pickup and lots more!

There are three important ways to support Christmas Grace: pray, volunteer, give.
Contact Pamela Denlinger at pameladenhhi@gmail.com with any questions or how you can participate in Christmas Grace

Thursdays, 10 am-11 am

Come join us as we get creative! Knit, crochet, paint, and enjoy other crafting opportunities. Learn a new skill or share your favorite hobby with others. Feel free to bring your current project along and just be part of the fun and fellowship. Bring a friend, too!

Beginner-friendly watercolor painting greeting cards are made for members of our church family- especially those who are unable to come to church or are going through long-term health challenges. We also take on special creative projects as requested by our church and its outreach groups. Our knitters use their needles to create prayer shawls for women who have experienced loss during their pregnancies.

Pray For the Caribbean, the Americas, and texas

After the devastation caused by #HurricaneBeryl in the Caribbean, UMCOR is coordinating with partners in the Methodist Church in the Caribbean and the Americas to support relief efforts.

St. Andrew By-The-Sea UMC is happy to support Family Promise of Beaufort County. Family Promise of Beaufort County, one of over 200 affiliates in 43 states, opened its doors in July 2008 and remains the only Shelter Program in Beaufort and Jasper counties that serves homeless children, aged 18 and under, and their families.

Family Promise of Beaufort County offers three programs to assist its families:

Get on Track! is its eviction prevention program. This program assists families with rent and utilities to help keep them housed.

Shelter is a 90-day program that provides families with temporary shelter, meals, comprehensive case management, and other services to assist families in their journey to sustaining independence. The Shelter Program capacity is 4 families, or 14 individuals.

Staying on Track is an opportunity for its Shelter graduates to receive an additional 12 months of financial and case management assistance. Over 90% of families who have graduated from the program are still in permanent housing after one year.

Since inception Family Promise of Beaufort County has assisted over 1,000 children and their parents in its programs. Prior to COVID-19 the organization operated a rotational model which involved families being sheltered overnight in local congregations in the area. As a result of the pandemic, Family Promise had to find an alternative solution, housing the families in a local extended-stay hotel, which continues to be the model.

Many families have experienced generational poverty and cyclical homelessness, and the goal is to help break the cycle by providing comprehensive case management and assistance in securing employment, medical care, childcare, school placement, and ultimately affordable housing.

Currently, St. Andrew By-The-Sea’s Soup Kitchen prepares one meal each month to the families and the coordinators deliver them. The church also collects products on Suds Sundays for Family Promise families.

For more information about the organization and St. Andrew’s involvement, email Dee Grubb at bdgrubb@gmail.com and check out the video below.

July 27-August 2, 2024, St. Andrew Outreach + Missions chair, Rebecca Jones, in coordination with others from Otterbein UMC in Otterbein, MD, taught six ‘Days for Girls’ workshops that included information on puberty, female and male reproductive systems, menstruation cycle, self-defense, hygiene, and use and care for the reusable menstruation kits. Three workshops were taught at Mission Guatemala’s Clinic located in San Andres and the three additional workshops were taught in remote villages of Panimache, Tocache and Caliaj.

St. Andrew By-The-Sea supported nutritional supplements for children 6 months-6 years through the Christmas offering and three workshops included the young mothers whose children are receiving the supplements. Several of the young children were at the workshops.

These life-changing kits were sponsored by designated funds from St. Andrew’s Mission Trip budget.

St. Andrew By-The-Sea has supported missionary, Sara Flores, annually since 2016. She is a missionary with the General Board of Global Ministries serving as Children’s Accompaniment Ministry Coordinator with the Evangelical United Methodist Church of Ecuador in Ecuador. In December 2021, SABTS gave additional financial support to the Integral Ministry for Children that supported new children’s bathrooms, Sunday School and Vacation Bible School. In addition, the funding helped to construct a roof that today protects children from the extreme tropical sun and rain.

In 2001, the Evangelical United Church of Ecuador, a union of protestant missions started in the 1960s, decided to join the Methodist community and is now in the process of maturing and growing. Much of its work is in marginalized urban and rural areas and among indigenous communities. The Church currently has 16 full congregations and eight new mission advance congregations. Sara was assigned to this ministry in Ecuador in 2011 after a term at Global Ministries’ headquarters as a regional executive for Latin America and the Caribbean. She earlier served as integrated ministries advisor for the Evangelical Methodist Church in Bolivia, working to strengthen the church’s ministries in health, education, and community development. The ministry also included national programs for children, women, and the elderly.

Sara’s work in Ecuador places an emphasis on diaconal ministries, supporting congregations in the development of projects that respond to the prioritized needs of the congregations and communities. Her ministry includes working with the national office of the church in the planning and implementation of integrated ministries, the central goal of which is to strengthen and facilitate local leadership training.

Born and raised in Bolivia, Sara holds a degree in Sciences of Education from the Universidad Mayor de San Simon in Cochabamba, Bolivia, and has completed post-graduate studies in both development and community health. Her husband, Dakin Cook, is a retired Global Ministries missionary. The couple lives in Quito, Ecuador.

The Soup Kitchen is a weekly ministry that serves persons in need in our community by sharing the love of God, providing food for nourishment, kindness, and hope for the future. Hot meals are served on Tuesdays and Fridays from 10:30 until 11:30 am at the Hilton Head campus Celebration Center. Volunteers are needed from 9:30 am to 12 noon. Perishable and non-perishable groceries are distributed on an unlimited basis. Full selection available both Tuesdays and Fridays, 10:30 until 11:30 am.

History

Our dream was to provide a safe, warm, or cool place to enjoy a hot meal. Our goal was always simple: to share a good meal, in God’s house with those less fortunate with dignity, compassion, and lots of love.

On September 9, 2011, St. Andrew By-The-Sea served its first Friday lunch to the homeless, hungry, unemployed, and working poor from our church neighborhood. On some Fridays, the kitchen now serves as many as 80 guests including children in the Celebration Center.

The food comes from deliveries from Second Helpings, Panera Bread, our own kitchen volunteers, and other organizations from our community. Some has to be purchased when needed.

We eat together, pray together, listen to stories, hold and rock the babies while moms enjoy a needed break, and for a short time provide a loving family atmosphere that may be missing for some of the guests.

We have ongoing needs for funds to purchase food when not donated. Also, we need paper products and containers with lids, drink mix, salad dressing, salsa, cookies, brownies, etc.

More volunteers are always needed. Children can make table decorations for different seasons, Sunday School classes can sponsor a Friday lunch. We can always use an extra casserole any Friday.

Your time and talent in the kitchen and/or financial support will always be welcome.

When the weather turns cold we try to provide socks, gloves, scarves, and hats.

We are all so blessed and have so much to be thankful for even during these trying economic times. This ministry gives us all an opportunity to show God’s love. The best part will be the blessing you receive as you reach out of your comfort zone and provide that unconditional love.

Lunch Menu: Different each week consisting of good fresh nutritious home-cooked food, fresh fruit, and fresh salad.

Harvest Table: A complete selection of perishable and non-perishable food provided by our partners Second Helpings and Deep Well. Meat, dairy, salads, fruit, vegetables, canned goods, sweet pastries and pies, bread, and fellowship are distributed on a no-limit basis. Stop by any Tuesday or Friday and share some love.

Food List PDF

Soup Kitchen Mission Statement-Grace PDF