St. Martha’s Outreach gives monthly donations to 6 food pantries – IRSD Pantry, Community Food Pantry, Union Wesley Pantry, Guadalupe Pantry, Community Lutheran Pantry and Pyle Center Pantry.   In summer months, we donate to White Bag Lunches, which provides bag lunches to students who are food insecure.

St. Martha’s also participates with 15 other churches from the Southeast Sussex Ministerium on different projects such as providing warm meals to families once a week December-March and The Crop Walk in October, which raises money for food pantries in Sussex County and Worldwide.

St. Martha’s Outreach works closely with the local school counselors to provide assistance to students who are in need. We have several projects, such as, Clothing Our Kids, Thanksgiving Baskets, Angel Tree, Food for Thought and Diaper Drives to provide supplies, clothing, and food to families in these schools.

We also participate with the SummerCollab Americore program which seeks to deliver targeted reading instruction for at risk students in K-5 during the summer months.

Our newest undertaking in the realm of education is our College Scholarship program aimed at providing need-based college scholarships for one year to students from the IRHS District Area.  For more information please visit our College Scholarships page.

St. Martha’s Outreach works to help provide shelter and housing by donating to Habitat for Humanity, Milford Housing Development Corporation, Code Purple and Southeast Sussex Ministerium Emergency Fund, which provides funds for rent and medical needs.

• Operation SEAs the Day – St. Martha’s has supported Operation SEAs the Day since its inception in 2013. This program provides 25 Wounded Warriors and their families a free week of vacation and healing in Bethany Beach each September. In addition to sponsoring an annual musical fundraising event, over a dozen St. Martha’s families host Wounded Warrior families, take them on tours of the area, and provide logistical support.
• Quilts of Valor – Since 2014 quilters from St. Martha’s have crafted Quilts of Valor every year for families attending the Operation SEAs the Day Warrior Family Beach Week. Our group has increased in size and in the number of quilts produced annually so they can support the National Quilt of Valor Foundation by presenting quilts to Veterans in our parish and community.
• Home of the Brave -This unique transitional housing facility feeds and provides emotional and vocational counseling to up to 60 male and 12 female Veterans in temporary distress. St. Martha’s funds transportation to assist veterans who are working toward independent living to access medical services, job interviews, and other services.
• Delaware Veteran’s Home – Annually, St. Martha’s parishioners prepare Christmas Card packets for almost 200 very elderly retired Veterans in this state-run assisted living home enabling those residents to write and mail Christmas and birthday cards to their friends and families.
• Delaware National Guard Youth Foundation – Delaware’s National Guard has one of the highest deployment rates in the U.S. since the 9/11 attacks because of its special ground and air skills. Annually, the NGYF hosts a Youth Camp at the National Guard facility in Bethany Beach for all National Guard children, especially those from families in which a family member is deployed. St. Martha’s made its first donation to the NGYF in 2019 to help modernize an old, unsafe playground. We are currently examining other ways to support this camp.
• Delaware Veteran’s Treatment Court – Several parishioners mentor Veterans who have become involved with the state legal system helping those Veterans complete treatment programs and regain the self-confidence they need to return, with dignity, to being productive citizens in their communities.  Since 2014, over 70 Veterans have graduated from the Sussex Veterans Treatment Court.

Now supported by the Diocese of Delaware as well, this organization had its birth at St. Martha’s over 20 years ago. The Rev. Jim Lewis and a few parishioners started a Bible Study at Sussex Correctional Institution to provide spiritual support and encouragement to those incarcerated. Realizing the need to help those inmates being released, parishioners founded The Way Home, which helps them find shelter, clothing, food, and jobs.