When God called him as rector of St. Michael’s, Orlando, seven years ago, the Rev. Rick Luoni had a question for his new congregation: If St. Michael’s ceased to exist tomorrow, would anyone other than our members miss us? The Orange County Public Schools answered that question on Friday, March 31, at its Crystal Awards event at Sea World, where the church received the Florida Department of Education Commissioner’s Business Award and OCPS Partner in Education of the Year.

“The award is great, but it’s just an affirmation and a thank-you to the congregation for their continued involvement, love and generosity,” Luoni said. St. Michael’s has a long heritage of outreach ministry, he said, noting that its connection with local schools has expanded greatly over the past few years.

Establishing a Ministry

In a video shown at the awards event, Luoni said the church-school connection arose out of still another question: “Who are those in need in our community right here?”

The church discovered three schools within a one-mile radius of its College Park location: Edgewater High, College Park Middle and Lake Silver Elementary. “Our response? It’s not an option not to serve them,” Luoni said.

As the church was praying for specific ministries at the schools, God provided one through a choir member, who brought an idea that Andrew Walker, the church’s director of music, decided to institute. It involved putting out bags once a month for people to take to the grocery store, fill and return.

“And then the next thing you know, I said, ‘Andrew, I’d really love to do this with the whole church,’ because I just really sensed it was answered prayer,” Luoni said. Thus the Feed My Lambs food ministry was born.

The three nearby schools have many students who, for various reasons, are food insecure, Luoni explained. The collected food goes to the schools’ food pantries and from there, home with any students in need.

“The one thing that we did that was a little different is that we would keep communicating with the schools,” Mr. Mike Robertson, the church’s outreach coordinator, explained. “We’d ask them, ‘What’s your pantry looking bare on right now?’

Robertson said Second Harvest Food Bank helps churches set up a Love Pantry at schools that includes basic staples such as generic Cheerios, peanut butter, macaroni and cheese, spaghetti noodles and tomato sauce.

“That’s awesome, and it’s enough to meet the federally mandated number of calories,” Robertson said. “But we were thinking if you were a third grader, wouldn’t it be exciting every once in a while to get a box of Froot Loops instead of plain Cheerios?”

Once a month, the church puts out a bag tree, its branches loaded with reusable grocery bags bearing the St. Michael’s logo. The church changes its requests for specific food items depending on what school officials request, Robertson said. Parishioners shop using the grocery bags, then return them, filled with food.

“For students who are homeless or living in cars, we do a lot of pop-top stuff that doesn’t have to be microwaved,” Robertson said. “We do a lot of ready-to eat. A couple of times a year, we try to do some Publix gift cards to give to the school’s parent liaison or safe coordinator, who really knows the situations of these students. … we try to give them options for some of the fresh foods.”

Once the grocery bags come back in, Walker sends out a text to interested members to determine when people can gather. Volunteers sort the collected food into bins for Lake Silver Elementary and Edgewater High and deliver them; College Park Middle typically gets the food it needs from Second Harvest, Robertson said.

Meeting Other Needs

But providing food is not the only way St. Michael’s ministers to its local schools. “At the beginning of the school year, we have people show up on campus and hold signs to welcome the kids back,” Robertson said. “The school has taken over the DJs now, but for the first couple of years we did that, we would hire a DJ or bring a speaker out and play some fun, energetic music.”

This year, the church has hosted Teacher Appreciation Breakfasts at all three schools. When Lake Silver needed an industrial-strength washer and dryer, the church provided the funds. St. Michael’s also established the Principal’s Shoe Closet there, replenishing funds periodically so the school can purchase sneakers in the sizes and types students need, runs periodic clothing drives and helps out in other ways as the needs arise.

“They [St. Michael’s members] really just want to make sure that our kids have the things that they need so that they have the opportunity to engage in their education,” Lake Silver Principal Sheila Burke said in the video that accompanied the award presentation.

Robertson agrees. “Anything that would distract a child from their education, we want to be there for,” he said. As a member of the Parent-Teacher Association at two of the schools and of a community guidance committee at the other, he has learned that active participation and listening are the best ways to determine the schools’ actual needs.

“I’m consistently at the meetings, saying, ‘Anything you guys need, give us a call,’” he said. “And then if something comes up that we haven’t discussed at the meeting, I’ll get an email from the PTA president, saying, ‘We’d love for you guys to come and pop popcorn or do face painting’ or ‘Do you know anyone who has an ice-cream truck?’ A lot of it is just whatever connections we have.”

And listening remains key. “We know from working with the homeless and with people in need in the community that one of the biggest things that people suffer from is not feeling visible or not feeling heard,” Robertson said. “Anywhere that we can have those conversations, whether it’s with the principal or with the parent, if they come to us for assistance, we just want to make sure that we’re able to, first of all, listen and provide that presence.”

Robertson also stresses the importance of the spiritual aspect of the equation. He encourages parishioners who shop for Feed My Lambs, “Don’t just grab whatever’s a buy one, get one and throw it in your cart. When you’re touching it and holding it and looking at the label, say a prayer that says, ‘Lord, please help this item to find the place where it’s really needed for the person who really needs it. And help them be blessed by it.’ That little shift in consciousness means so much.”

St. Michael’s has already been involved in helping establish similar ministries at other churches, and Robertson would love to see the church’s vision for outreach spread even further. “The Bible makes it pretty clear,” he said. “If someone’s naked, you give them clothes. If someone’s hungry, give them food. If someone’s in prison, you go visit them.”

Luoni sees kingdom principles at work not only in the OCPS award, but also in the church’s ongoing emphasis on outreach. “We’re not a megachurch on Main Street … we’re a relatively average-size neighborhood church,” he said. “When we come together like this, even though it may on some levels appear small and insignificant, God uses that and takes it and blesses and feeds the multitudes, if you will. I really see this biblical imagery in what we’re doing, and it really is a unique work of God.”