St. John's to St. Ann's

What is St. Ann's?
St. Ann's is an Episcopal church in the South Bronx. It is in the heart of the poorest congressional district in the United States. St. Ann's addresses the urgent needs of its neighbors with food and such assistance as it can give, it has also developed a dramatically successful after-school program for elementary school children, featured in Jonathan Kozol's book Amazing Grace and on Oprah. It offers the only swings and jungle gym in the area as well as green space in the heart of a concrete city.

What do we do at St. Ann's?
We send groups to St. Ann's several times a year.  

Our biggest group each year helps run their after school program during the first week of June while the people who usually run it are at the Alex Haley Farm in Tennessee for training. By going to help that week we enable the program to stay open. We pick up the kids from several schools within walking distance, help them with homework, and play with them when they are done. We also do building and grounds maintenance during some of the days we are there. In the past this has included painting, cleaning, organizing, and yard work.

We also send groups of adults in the spring and fall.  Those groups have done a variety of projects including building a shed and renovating the kitchen.  We always do some gardening and grounds maintenence.