St. Gabriel's Group at St. Joseph's Parish in Otis Orchards, WA is taking this wonderful Year of Mercy to heart, participating as best we can. We have decided to combine our goal of raising Catholic kids and participating in the Year of Mercy is by doing a fundraiser. The group is putting together a liturgical cookbook to be titled Foods of our Faith: Liturgical Recipes and Traditions. Proceeds from this cookbook will benefit the local elementary school. The community we live in has a large poverty rate, so many of the children go without food over the weekends. Our parish, St. Joseph's in Otis Orchards, has partnered with the community to provide meals for these children.

St. Gabriel's Group would love your help. If you have any recipes or family traditions we can include we'd be grateful. We're looking for Advent Meals, Lent and feast days. Additionally if you have a feast day tradition, how you celebrate Michaelmas, Patron's Feast Days or Pentecost would be perfect. We'll include source information and any pictures you might have.

In support of St. Joe's efforts to provide weekend meals for elementary children in Otis Orchards, the parish's mom's group will be selling liturgical cookbooks. Foods of Our Faith: Liturgical Recipes and Traditions will be available for pre-order and delivered by mid October.  Proceeds will go to the "Bite To Go" program at Otis Orchards elementary.

Copyright 2008 John Purcell via Flickr, all rights reserved. Copyright 2008 John Purcell via Flickr, all rights reserved.

As a large member of the Otis Orchards community, St. Joe's has teamed up with the local elementary school to offer support where we can. An area no family should struggle with is the care and feeding of their children. With the help of the teachers' identification, weekend meals are packaged and sent home to students in need. The parishioners of St. Joe's provide the financial and time resources necessary to help the "Bite to Go" program.

"Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me." Mt 25:40. Pope Francis has called the Church to show mercy to those around us. This fundraiser embodies our group's need to care for our community; feeding the poor is a Corporal Act of Mercy.

The cookbook will include seasonal recipes: Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, as well as feast days and family tradition sections.  Local children, grades K-8 will be participating in a cover contest with Amazon gift cards to the winner and several runner ups.

To include recipes and traditions, pre-order or for more information please contact Sevrina Ryan  or Jessica Morgan. Deadline for submitting recipes is June 1. A pre-order option at a discounted rate will be available soon.