Our Ministry at Emmanuel Dining Room
WHAT IS EMMANUEL DINING ROOM?
The Emmanuel Dining Room (EDR), is a program of the Ministry of Caring founded by Brother Giannone in 1979 to feed the homeless in Wilmington.
The EDR is supported by 2000 volunteers from 93 churches, synagogues, and civic groups. There are three sites in the city. St. Barnabas serves the site located at Second and Jackson Streets in a vacant fire station.
St. Barnabas EDR outreach has three components: cooks, bakers, and servers.
COOKIES: Volunteers bake cookies in order to give the homeless a taste of homemade goodies. These cookies usually arrive before the 15th of the month and are placed in the St. Barnabas freezer.
COOKS: The cooks arrive at the church kitchen on the 14th day of the month, unless the 14th is a Sunday, then the food is prepared on the 13th day. Four large trays of vegetable and meat stew are then delivered to EDR.
SERVERS: On the 15th day of the month, regardless of the weather or what day it might be, a group of servers meet at the church at 11:00 a.m. to go to EDR to serve a hot meal to those who show up.
The cookies are taken to EDR to be used as part of the hot lunch. Food is served from 12:00 Noon until 1:00 PM. After the homeless have eaten, EDR staff and volunteers are welcome to the hot lunch. The servers return to St. Barnabas by about 1:45 PM with our four large empty trays and any surplus canned food donated by the EDR to be used in the next month’s meal.
If you feel called to this very worthy ministry, please contact Greg Yulduzian.