Once a month for three months late this summer, 200 to 300 people have lined up in the parking lot of St. Francis Episcopal Church to receive a food box from the San Antonio Food Bank. The SA Food Bank brings two to three tons of food, reports St. Francis’ rector, the Rev. Patrick Ormos. “We provide the space and some volunteers to help with distribution.”

But, you see, space is something St. Francis has plenty of. “Being a missional church,” says Ormos, “is a matter of leveraging what you have.” St. Francis has seven acres of land, plenty of parking, easy access from IH10, and a neighborhood with a great many needs.

This particular food distribution is a three-month project that networks St. Francis, University United Methodist Church, the Food Bank, and Family Services Association to get food to immigrant and refugee families in the St. Francis neighborhood.

Like many churches, the neighborhood around St. Francis has been an evolving one. “When the church was founded, this area (just off IH10, a couple of miles outside Loop 410, on San Antonio’s northwest side) was suburbia,” says Ormos. Today the growth is happening much farther out, and St. Francis has become what Ormos calls an “urban” church, although not an inner-city church. It is, in fact, a locally-oriented neighborhood church, and St. Francis has recognized that their mission is to their neighborhood.

Today the neighborhood includes a large number of apartments that are the homes of immigrants and refugees. Catholic Charities relocates the refugees in partnership with the U. S. government and pays their rent for three to six months. But their needs are substantial: job-skills training, health care, social acculturation, and English language skills. Especially after the six-month mark, there is a huge gap in services for the refugees.

Several years ago, St. Francis launched a “Neighbors Helping Neighbors” program that included such things as collecting canned goods, clothing, and school supplies for their community. That led to a partnership with Family Services Association that now includes – among other things — a full summer program on the St. Francis campus for about 300 youngsters.

When a retired registered nurse with experience in community health care joined the St. Francis congregation, a new dimension was added. The nurse had contacts at the University of Texas Health Science Center School of Nursing, and another partnership was formed. Now the nursing students and St. Francis provide a regular health clinic at one of the nearby apartment complexes. “The refugees and immigrants have tremendous health needs,” says Ormos. Typically if there is not a health clinic available, low-income patients ignore their health needs until they are severe enough to require an emergency room visit. “They have no insurance, so the costs fall on us,” points out Ormos. “And the cost of medical care at an emergency room is much higher than at a health clinic. It makes more sense to provide community health clinics.”

One of the things that all the immigrants/refugees love to do is play soccer. “But there is no place to do that at an apartment complex,” says Ormos, “and we have this seven acres of land. We have opened it up to become a soccer field. We’re thinking of who we can work with to get soccer goals donated.”

St. Francis is also thinking about putting in a community garden on the St. Francis land. “We figure we can do two 4,000 sq. ft. plots,” Ormos says. “People can grow their own vegetables, which they need in their diet. Then when we get established we can open a farmer’s market where they can sell produce and make a little money.” Add to that a teaching component of how to cook the produce (partnering with a culinary institute located across the street from the church); then bring in Master Gardeners and the A&M ag extension program, and everyone wins.

Being missional is about networking, says Ormos. “It’s about hospitality and leveraging what you have.”

It’s about a congregation seeing what the local needs are and figuring out how the church can meet them.

Photo courtesy Lisa Krantz/San Antonio Express-News/ZUMApress.com.