MCO Update May 21, 2026

All Saints - Immaculate Conception - St. Elizabeth Ann Seton - St. John XXIII - St. Joseph - St. Jude - St. Ludmila

St. Matthew - St. Patrick - St. Pius X - St. Wenceslaus

Just This Week

May 18th - May 21st

148 Families Served

566 People Served

34 School Bags

50 Homeless Bags

MCO WILL BE CLOSED MONDAY, MAY 25th

Happy Memorial Day!

We Love Amazon Deliveries

Gabe, the cheerful Amazon delivery man, delivered an impressive stack of boxes Tuesday. Our office volunteer Kathy (modeling her new MCO T shirt) directs the intake.

As seen in the photo, a much needed case of TP was included in this large delivery!

You too can easily donate from the comfort of your couch. Just click our AMAZON WISH LIST button found in every newsletter, and have your donation delivered directly to MCO. Needed items are listed, but just search the groceries and personal care items on Amazon and you can find many other interesting things to send us.

Our shelves are getting bare, any and all donations are much needed and very much appreciated!

Also -- did you know we go through about 2,000 grocery bags per week? We always need clean plastic grocery bags!

What our shelves should look like

What some of our shelves look like this month

CURRENT URGENT NEEDS

PANTRY NEEDS

Snacks, Crackers

Tuna/Hamburger Helper

Clean Plastic Grocery Bags

PERSONAL CARE

Soap, Toilet Paper

Shampoo, Dental Care

Dog and Cat Food

Wheeled Luggaged

HOMELESS SUPPLIES

Easy-Open Nonperishable

Food Items Only

Fruit Cups

CLICK HERE FOR OUR AMAZON WISH LIST

Wheeled Luggage Always

A Welcome Relief

Do you have any of these big guys unused and taking up space in your closets?

Many of our clients take the bus or walk to pick up their groceries, which can often be eight or nine heavy bags full of food. Suitcases with handles and wheels can more easily get the groceries back home, whether folks are walking, on a bicycle, or riding the bus. And our homeless clients especially love them.

A gently used piece of luggage adds so much dignity to both those without vehicles and our neighbors living on the streets.

Luggage with broken handles or wheels unfortunately is not usable.

Thanks for thinking of local folks in need when you are trying to free up some extra space at home!

Green Prairie Garden

at Prairiewoods

Christine Kirpes, Garden Coordinator

SO Many Groups!

We’ve been very blessed to have been busy in our garden with several service groups this spring. We are still building our regular Tuesday & Friday morning volunteer corps, but the groups have been keeping us up & getting ahead on our to-do list as we weed, loosen beds, plant seeds & seedlings, watch things grow, and HARVEST! Our Hoop House has been producing several types of greens plus radishes, but we’ve been harvesting asparagus, rhubarb, & the outside greens & radishes for a few weeks also. We feel like we’re really gardening now!

Larger projects completed this spring include:

-filling our framed raised beds back up with a special soil mix

-replaced several broken wooden fence posts

-redoing some log edging along our beds

More regular spring tasks we've done have included planting, weeding, watering, and getting hoses out.

Thanks so much to the groups we’ve hosted in our Prairiewoods garden since our last post here about service: St. Matthew Parish, Men’s Benedictus Ministry, & United Way Day of Caring (thanks to Imon & McGrath for sending their teams!). We're looking forward to hosting another group this Thursday evening.

Look us up on Instagram at Metrocatholiccr for more detailed posts about our service groups.

If you or your group would like to help in our garden, contact Christine:

cmckirpes@gmail.com

ALL contributions are needed and appreciated!

Call our office or ring our bell when you arrive and we'll help you bring in your donations.

Donations accepted during office hours OR drop off at any of our area Catholic churches.

~ Please CALL AHEAD with large donations ~

319-739-5490

THANK YOU TO

ALL OUR FAITHFUL DONORS

AND VOLUNTEERS!

YOU MAKE METRO CATHOLIC OUTREACH

A SUCCESS!!

Are YOU interested in helping?

We need volunteers to help put food on the tables of local folks in need. Greet clients in our office, sort food in our pantry, load groceries at distribution, distribute homeless bags.

Call or email us -- our contact details are below

"The first question... 'If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?' But the good Samaritan reversed the question: 'If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?'"

— Martin Luther King Jr.