The Social Action Committee has been active since several years before the Community was formally recognized. It was formed in answer to Pope John XXIII’s Call to Action to the laity.

Some of our earliest works were the formation of Monday Night Meal. We began by serving at St. John’s on Church St. During the first month that myself and a friend cooked and served the meal we had 35 people attend each night, 4 of whom were women. Now we see many more women, some families and more and more young, single men and women. Since that time it has become an entity to itself and serves between 400 and 700 people on any given Monday night. To give you an idea how old this ministry is, I myself cooked for 17 years, until 1994, and others who began at that time are still cooking.

One of the earliest projects was cooperation with the parish to help with the Rainbow Club. We met on Saturdays from 9:30 to 3:00 and planned activities for as many as 100 children. They played sports, did crafts and if they wished they could attend bible class. We also fed them a hot lunch. Several times a year they were taken on field trips, one of which was a trip with the older children to the ballet. Rainbow was a very moving experience because many of these children were sent up to the Club for safety reasons and brought with them their 1 and 2-year old siblings. This group operated for about 18 years and the children are now served by programs at the Malachi Center. One of the most delightful things we did was to encourage participation of the children’s mothers in the Rainbow Club. About 5 of these women became good friends of the volunteers and staff of St. Malachi. Several of them were able to get some training in food preparation and service and have since gotten jobs and homes out of the project. Several remain good friends.

A third project was the Boutique which was held just before Christmas. This enabled the children to buy gifts for family members when they would otherwise not be able to. The Community members were very generous in their donations of good, clean articles of every description. This project is now handled by the parents of Urban Community School.

Another project was our support of Caesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers. Many people picketed the grocery stores and most of us refrained from eating head lettuce and grapes for several years until the struggle was won. A number of members marched with Chavez when he came to Cleveland. We had dinners with the migrant families and some of us became surrogate families.

Several years ago we concentrated on the Homeless. Ten people were trained to be more assertive in the area of the Homeless. By associating with many of the homeless at the Monday Night Meal we learned first hand to realize that they are real people. At one point we were able to keep a city shelter open by making a phone call to Mayor White’s office. We realize that we must keep working for the homeless but that it is such an overwhelming problem that we are almost as helpless as they are homeless.

This committee is well known throughout the city and as such has influence that many of us did not realize. When we write a letter or make a call our information and concerns are taken seriously. My son-in-law, who was at a meeting of Lutheran clergy in Detroit, was happy to learn that our reputation had even reached there.

In 1996 we cooperated closely with the Liturgy Committee. We began a project in Advent in which we asked members of the community to choose a symbol representing the Malachi Ministry that they were particularly interested in and indicate on the back of it what they would do to foster their interest and their actions in that Ministry. The symbols were used to decorate a Jesse tree. We had limited success with this project but not being easily discouraged we are planning to try again in 1997 with an aim to getting more participation from members. The idea of this project is to inform members about the different ministries and what is available to them to fulfill our mission as a community. During Lent, in 1996, we had several Communion reflections and passed out information about the new Welfare Reforms and how they impacted the residents of our area. This started on February 2nd with a flyer about the discontinuation of food stamps to 17,000 single men in Cuyahoga County on March 1st of ‘96. We also wrote a letter to the Governor urging him to seek a waiver to extend the stamps until more has been done about job training and availability, child care and transportation.

In a joint venture with the Parish, we were able to join St. Colman’s Credit Union. They have been in business for 35 years and are very stable. Members of the parish, the Community, their relatives and friends can join. It is also open to the people in the project, the elderly at the high rise and the homeless in the area. In June of 1998 the Credit Union began a checking service. You can obtain information by calling them at 216—281-4570.

In 1997 we focused on Sweatshop labor. In cooperation with the Inter-Religious Task Force we wrote many letters to manufacturers, distributors and others asking them their policies on wages and treatment of workers in their places of manufacturer. We also encouraged members of the community to join us in writing letters. We encouraged these companies to pay decent wages and put humane working conditions in place where they do not exist and encouraged them to raise the standard of living for their workers in this country and in foreign countries.

Communion reflections were given on Mental Health Awareness, Welfare reform and again in connection with our charge of raising money for the refugee family that the community sponsored.

We were given the task of raising $5000 for the refugee family. Two gentlemen from the community did a splendid job in reproducing flyers and distributing them on Sundays, encouraging members to meet their pledge of $20.00. One of them gave a communion reflection on the subject. Through their efforts we raised $8000. A breakfast held for the purpose of raising money brought in another $1200. We spent $5000 on the first family and a determination had to be made by the community whether or not to sponsor another family starting with the nest egg of $4200. The community will vote on this at the May 1997 meeting.

The possibility of purchasing second-hand coats for the knights of the road was approved by the pastor and the committee was prepared to do this. After discussion with the parish personnel we waited for them to tell us when they were in need of the coats. Because of the mild weather the need did not arise and the money is still on hold.

We had a collection to raise money for the Honduras Relief effort. A Communion Reflection was presented and money was raised by the combined efforts of the community and the parish for this purpose. Together with matching funds and donated work by Doctors from the Cleveland area approximately $10,000 was realized.

We have been approached by Transitional Housing to try to better the lives of the women residents there by helping with educational scholarships and by providing dental work. The committee has committed to this project and has begun working on it by writing a grant for part of the money. Dentists will be contacted to see if special rates can be arranged for some of the women. They will also be put in touch with Case Western Reserve Dental School.

The committee is open to all interested persons and everyone is welcome to attend the meetings. Also you are invited to present projects that especially interest you and we will attempt to help you with them.