HOULTON, Maine — Parish Social Ministry, a Catholic Charities Maine program, has announced that six local parishes will receive Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) parish grants totaling $18,550.
St. Mary of the Visitation Parish in Houlton was awarded $4,000 to assist people who utilize the parish’s food pantry to work on budgeting, connecting with a financial mentor, and healthy eating.
The mission of Parish Social Ministry is to provide leadership, guidance, Catholic social teaching education, and training to empower parishioners to compassionately serve people of all faiths living in their communities. The CCHD parish grants support community-based initiatives that aim to solve community-wide problems, empowering those in need to make ongoing life changes and to become more self-sufficient while offering parishioners the opportunity to serve those less fortunate.
“The applications this year really show a growth in our Church’s ability to respond to not only the immediate needs of Mainers, such as food and clothing, but also to work on the education and transformative piece so that not everyone has to be in need in the future,” said Michael Smith, the director of mission for Catholic Charities Maine.
The mission of CCHD is made possible by the generous support of Catholics in the United States, especially through an annual collection taken up in most parishes the Sunday before Thanksgiving. From this collection, twenty-five percent of the proceeds remain in Maine to support local efforts with significant parish engagement. The remaining seventy-five percent is collected by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to distribute for larger national funding opportunities from which Maine agencies and organizations that address the systemic root of poverty can also apply.
