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Can you help?
Your gift to St. Susan Center will help
provide a nutritional meal to those in our community who enjoy far
too few of them.
In 2008, St. Susan Center served 135,761 meals. That’s nearly 30,000
more meals than were needed in 2007. The need we have met over the
past six years, in fact, has more than doubled, increasing by 128%.
That increase is likely to continue, as our current economic condition
causes more and more individuals and families to seek help wherever
they can find it. Can you help?
All gifts, including those made in honor or in memory of a special
person or event, are welcome and are acknowledged appropriately.
For more information…
Current Wish List
St. Susan Center benefits most from monetary
contributions, because the soup kitchen has greater buying power
than most consumers, through the Food Bank of WNY. However, if you
would like to have a food drive to benefit the Center, please consider
asking for contributions of the items needed most.
Currently, they are:
- Fresh Fruit & Veggies
- Good sources of calcium (milk, yogurt, cheese)
- Healthy snacks (nuts, dried fruit, fruit, granola)
Non-food gifts may also be given in honor or in memory of a special
person or event. |
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About
St. Susan Center is the result of a tragedy and a
dream. The dream was first articulated by an
ecumenical group of clergy from the Southern
Chautauqua region, who wished to provide… “food for
the hungry and to welcome strangers.” There was
great love and unmistakable worth in their dream,
but it lacked the necessary funding to be put into
action.
A tragic car accident that took the life of a young
downstate New Yorker named Susan led to a very
special gift that brought the dream to fruition.
While Susan was cared for in WCA Hospital, the
clergy of many local churches and our community
surrounded her and her family with loving care.
Susan did not survive the accident and, in her
memory and in honor of the clergy and WCA Hospital
staff that cared for her, Susan’s family made the
monetary gift that was needed to establish
Jamestown’s soup kitchen. St. Susan Center opened
its doors on February 1, 1984.
Their gift has nurtured our community for
twenty-three years in countless ways. They shared
with us an indelible lesson in love and we share
that gift by offering “food, fellowship, dignity and
respect to all who come through our doors.”
The first home of St. Susan Center was in the former
St. James Catholic School. The soup kitchen was the
guest of the church, paying no rent, utilities or
fees of any kind. When the school was sold in 2006,
St. Susan Center launched a major capital/relocation
campaign.
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One might think that having to move was another form
of tragedy and, in truth, it seemed an overwhelming
obstacle just eighteen months ago. But it was
important for St. James Church to be able to move
on. It was equally important for St. Susan Center,
after twenty-one years of serving the community as a
guest ourselves, to develop further and give back to
the community in new ways.
Today, the Center occupies part of the former
Chautauqua Hardware building on Water Street.
Through the auspices of the Community Development
Association and the generosity of the greater
Jamestown community, the Center is barrier-free and
beautiful and, once again, secure.
In our new home, St. Susan Center is able to host
meetings and events… annual dinners, monthly
meetings, special parties, holiday gatherings and
more. Every time we open our doors, it is to build
community and increase the understanding and support
of our mission to feed the hungry. |
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