Saint John’s Benedictine Volunteer Corps
About the Site
Saint James Catholic Church is a vibrant parish located on the near south side of Chicago. The parish reflects the 
diversity of the surrounding neighborhoods. Along with excellent liturgy, we also value the Benedictine commitment to hospitality and welcome. Fr. Edward Linton, O.S.B. of Saint Meinrad Archabbey in Indiana is the pastor at St. James and recruited Alex to come serve as the parish’s volunteer coordinator for this year (2010-2011). Alex lives in the rectory of St. James on Wabash with four other men.
Work of the SJBVC
This year is the first year that the SJBVC has sent a volunteer to St. James. Alex works as the Volunteer Coordinator for the St. James Social Care Program. His office is in the St. James Parish office, which also houses the parish food pantry. The pantry serves over 1,600 families (about 3,000 individuals) in the 60616 and 60605 area codes every month. On top of that the pantry hosts an empowerment program to assist certain volunteers in gaining skills necessary to obtain and maintain jobs.
As the Volunteer Coordinator Alex is in charge of a number of different projects including the de
velopment of this empowerment program, creating a monthly volunteer e-newsletter (if you are interested in receiving the newsletter please email Alex at aschafer@stjameswabash.org), and recruiting, training, and maintaining all volunteers. On top of the pantry, the St. James Social Care Program includes a mobile food pantry once a month, a senior ministry program, and a senior delivery program.
