Meet Our New Pastor Melissa Earley
We are pleased to welcome our new Pastor in Residence, The Rev. Melissa Earley. Melissa is an ordained United Methodist pastor. Though she has been serving churches in the Chicago area for the last 25 years, Leadville feels like coming home. She grew up in Parker, Colorado and is thrilled to be back to mountains where she can hike, kayak and be outdoors. Melissa was drawn to St. George’s clear mission of feeding anyone and everyone who is hungry. She looks forward to getting to know the wide and welcoming St. George community.
As a writer, Melissa loves anything to do with words - reading, both fiction and nonfiction, theater, and live first-person storytelling. She won a Moth Story Slam in 2019 and was a regular performer at First Person Live in Arlington Heights. You can read her blog Waking Up Earley at www.melissa-earley.com. Melissa loves to cook, travel, and spend time with her dog Tango.
We are pleased to welcome our new Pastor in Residence, The Rev. Melissa Earley. Melissa is an ordained United Methodist pastor. Though she has been serving churches in the Chicago area for the last 25 years, Leadville feels like coming home. She grew up in Parker, Colorado and is thrilled to be back to mountains where she can hike, kayak and be outdoors. Melissa was drawn to St. George’s clear mission of feeding anyone and everyone who is hungry. She looks forward to getting to know the wide and welcoming St. George community.
As a writer, Melissa loves anything to do with words - reading, both fiction and nonfiction, theater, and live first-person storytelling. She won a Moth Story Slam in 2019 and was a regular performer at First Person Live in Arlington Heights. You can read her blog Waking Up Earley at www.melissa-earley.com. Melissa loves to cook, travel, and spend time with her dog Tango.
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OUR FOOD MISSION
St. George’s serves Lake County, a rural community that dwells at 10,152 feet of elevation. Due to our geographic location and other structural barriers, Lake County struggles with food access at the individual, household, and community level. Located 24 miles off of the I-70 corridor, and only accessible via high mountain passes, food procurement is a challenge for our community. Lake County only has one grocery store for all 8,000 residents. Prior to the impact of inflation, groceries in Lake County cost 18% higher than the national average and 11% higher than our neighboring communities. Additionally, 70% of our community commutes 40 miles or more over high mountain passes to work in the wealthier surrounding ski communities. With the high cost of living and rising prices of gas to commute, St. George’s food program has become even more essential. We prioritize providing the fresh, nutritious food our community deserves but is often unattainable due to financial constraints and other barriers. This year, our food budget has been impacted significantly by inflation, both increasing the number of households utilizing our programs and increasing our cost to purchase nutritionally essential and culturally appropriate foods. Just this year the number of people who visit our Pantry has more than tripled, and the number of people attending our Community Meals has more than doubled. We have estimated that we will spend approximately $250,000 on food alone in 2023. The majority of our funding comes from grants, which are not guaranteed. St. George will continue to respond to the needs of its community in whatever capacity it can, but we are hoping to make our particular dilemma more widely known so that we can build a broader base of support. As a trusted ally in our community we strive to build community through the sharing of food while meeting each individual with dignity, love, and respect. As a team we are constantly striving to see through individual and collective pain and into the innocence of each person in an attempt to ease suffering, if only a little. The results of our work has shown us time and time again that if you love people and feed them nutritious food, it can have a positive impact on their physical, mental, and spiritual well being, and in turn they are more likely to thrive within a community. The ripple effect of this mission happens in small ways, in every interaction, but the results are huge and are creating more peace in this chaotic world. |
ABOUT USThe heart of the matter
At the heart of St George is a diverse community of faith focused on knowing our neighbors through sharing a common table. The people at St George delight in the adventure of our mission, building community by welcoming, nourishing, and loving our neighbors as ourselves, or our secret mission: If we have food, by God we'll SHARE it! We celebrate diversity. All of our kitchen meal coordinators speak some English and some Spanish. We enjoy sharing the adventure and the ongoing conversation with folks of all faiths or no faith. This LOVE goes deeper than categories or creeds. |
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Thank You
Whether you help through monetary donations, volunteering your time, or telling our story through word-of-mouth, thank you. We couldn't continue without the help of friends like you. If you would like to sign up to Volunteer, go to "Get Involved!" under the donate option above. Thank you again!
Whether you help through monetary donations, volunteering your time, or telling our story through word-of-mouth, thank you. We couldn't continue without the help of friends like you. If you would like to sign up to Volunteer, go to "Get Involved!" under the donate option above. Thank you again!
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CREATING CONNECTION THROUGH SHARED MEALSThe Community Meals is the heart of our experience and our "theology".
We seek to confuse the issue of who is giving and who is receiving. In the sharing of food, we are all enriched, as is our community. As can be seen in this photo, the "Eucharist" (communion) flows from the altar to the ordinary table. Of course! |