Community Outreach

Outreach to the local community and the world has a long history at Holy Trinity.  Currently, the Outreach Committee meets several times a year to discuss for our Outreach Partners, funding needs and opportunities for service.  Currently, 7+ % of our annual statement of mission (budget) is set aside for outreach. In addition to financial support, Parishioners volunteer their time at several of these organizations. 

Local Outreach Charities

Food Insecurity Charities

Clemson Community Care

Clemson Community Care assists persons in difficult circumstances with necessities such as food, shelter and utilities.  It also provides educational programs and advocacy to teach clients to become self-sufficient.  The organization serves Clemson, Central and Pendleton.  

In addition to the donations of food staples, hygiene items and diapers collected each week, the ripe produce of the SAME Garden is delivered to Clemson Community Care.  Many volunteer opportunities are available by contacting the website above.

Golden Corner Food Pantry

Golden Corner Food Pantry provides emergency and supplemental food to disadvantaged and low-income residents of Oconee County.  Both emergency needs and occasional supplemental help are provided.  Contact the website above for more information.

Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread is Oconee County’s Soup Kitchen.  This interdenominational Christian ministry is committed to addressing the needs of the poor and underserved.  Nourishing meals are provided in a pleasant, friendly setting that alleviates physical hunger and enables hope.  Donations and active service by volunteers are needed.  Contact the website for more information.

Paw Pantry

The Paw Pantry works to reduce food insecurity and promote wellbeing at Clemson University.  The Pantry is available to any current student with a valid CUID to ensure students’ foundational and nutritional needs are met.  Contact the website for information about donations or volunteering.

The Nook

The Nook helps faculty and staff of Clemson University who may be experiencing food insecurity or financial hardships.  Help is offered in a respectful, compassionate and confidential manner.  A variety of essential items, such as non-perishable food items, toiletries, household products and other necessities are provided.  See the website above for more information.

Rise Against Hunger

Rise Against Hunger is an international hunger relief nonprofit that focuses on packaging and distribution of food and other aid to people in developing countries.  Our Parish partners with other churches in the area to package food annually on the first Saturday in February.  It brings together over a hundred volunteers from 7 churches to package tons of food to be shipped across the world.  

Housing Insecurity Charities

Family Promise of Pickens County

Family Promise helps families experiencing homelessness and low-income families achieve sustainable independence through a community-based response.  Services include prevention, diversion, shelter, stabilization among others.  See the website above for current programs and how you can help.

Our Daily Rest

Our Daily Rest is focused on providing comprehensive case management, counseling services, employment and mentorship in a safe home atmosphere to the homeless.  There is no cost to the client.  Graduates of the program often receive clothing assistance and help with setting up a household.  See website for additional information.

Other Local Partners

Clemson Child Development Center

The Clemson Child Development Center provides affordable, high-quality childcare and preschool education. The Center fosters learning and development in an environment that appreciates diversity. Emphasis is also given to programs that strengthen the home environment, enabling families to support the optimal development of their preschool children. 

To volunteer for workdays or fundraising projects, or serve as a board member, contact Board Chair, Charlotte Holt.

Clemson Free Clinic

The Clemson Free Clinic provides quality free medical care and pharmaceuticals with compassion and dignity to residents of Clemson, Pendleton, Central and Six Mile between the ages of 12 and 64 who are not eligible for Medicaid, Medicare or other health insurance but whose total household income is at or below the federal poverty level. 

To volunteer in the clinic if you have a medical background or to serve in a supporting role, contact the Executive Director, Sandy Smith.

Healing Bridges

Healing Bridges offers holistic mental health care accessible to everyone.  As a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization services are offered on a flexible, tiered self-pay system based on financial need.  The goal is to empower individuals and families in the greater Clemson area to achieve their optimal mental health through counseling.  

Shaw Center

The mission of the Shaw Center is to provide services to ensure the historically underserved neighborhoods in the city of Clemson are sustainable and livable.  HT has a team that participates in providing repairs including flooring, window/door replacement, ramps, etc. in these underserved areas.  

Safe Harbor

Safe Harbor provides a continuum of services to victims of domestic violence and their children and works to eliminate cultural acceptance of domestic violence through coordinated community response, education, and prevention. They offer temporary, emergency shelter for Upstate victims of domestic violence and their children through their facilities in Greenville, Anderson, and Oconee Counties. Residents receive counseling, case management, support group therapy and living skills training. 

In addition to providing financial support and donation of goods, there are numerous volunteer roles available.  For more information, see the detailed volunteer form at their website or contact the Volunteer and Development Coordinator, Janie Board.

International Outreach Missions

Haiti Ministries

Holy Trinity Parish has been involved with our diocesan mission work in the Central Plateau of Haiti since the early 1980s. Due to continuing cycles of instability in Haiti, however, we have been unable to send mission teams to the Cange area since 2019. We hope to resume our trips there as soon as possible, and when we do there will be a need volunteers for all manner of tasks. In the meantime, Holy Trinity continues to help fund primary education in Bois Joli and offer the most promising students financial support to attend university.  

Holy Trinity supported creation of the original water system in Cange in the early 1980s, and for many of the intervening years by organizing frequent medical and other work trips to the hospital and surrounding villages. More recently we have supported mobile clinics in the most remote villages to treat hypertension, which is epidemic in Haiti. Many members and priests of the Church have participated in these trips, including our youth who competed in a soccer tournament in Cange. Some of our financial support has focused on university education for the most promising students from the area and on primary education in our adopted village of Bois Joli. Every school day, thousands of children quite literally climb the mountains of Haiti to seek an education and a better life for themselves, their families and their communities.  Holy Trinity also partners with Clemson Engineers for Developing Communities led by David Vaughn, on various projects, including fundraising to support developing a system for producing fish food for the Central Plateau’s growing tilapia aquaculture industry. This fish production is part of a larger goal of replacing U.S. agricultural imports with less expensive local food. 

We celebrate our commitment to our Haitian partners by displaying the stylized crucifix designed by the longstanding priest and leader of Cange at the back of the nave and with our weekly Prayers of the People.

Bois Joli Teachers Fund

Our adopted village of Bois Joli is situated in a beautiful but very remote region in the Central Plateau of Haiti, inaccessible by road and a difficult half day's walk from Cange.  With no school available for their children (other than in Cange), village leaders approached us 25 years ago for assistance in building a school.  Holy Trinity partnered with three other local churches to provide funding for the school building, and the villagers carried the materials needed for construction along the difficult footpath to their village. The school has operated successfully all these years and is now administered by Summits Education. Holy Trinity provides annual support for three of the primary school teachers.

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Haiti University Student Fund

The Outreach committee works closely with Summits Education, a US-based non-profit with representatives in Haiti, to provide support for Haitian students to go to university.  Summits Education chooses students based on need and promise to give back to their community. Without higher education, a generation of Haitians will fail to rise above their limiting circumstances, and the cycle of poverty that plagues this country has little chance of being broken.  Holy Trinity and its members have supported numerous students who are now contributing locally in fields ranging from agriculture to engineering to medicine. 

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Singing Rooster Coffee and Chocolate

Holy Trinity partners with Singing Rooster, a nonprofit opening global markets for small coffee and chocolate producers in Haiti. Singing Rooster gourmet coffee, whole bean and ground, is available for purchase each Sunday morning; organic milk and dark chocolate bars are also for sale seasonally.  77% of sales is returned to local Haitian farmers.

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Episcopal Relief and Development

Episcopal Relief & Development is the compassionate response of The Episcopal Church to human suffering in the world. Holy Trinity contributes to this important work directly through the Outreach Committee budget. In addition, many church members make contributions, which can be targeted to specific missions. Hearing God’s call to seek and serve Christ in all persons and to respect the dignity of every human being, Episcopal Relief & Development serves to bring together the generosity of Episcopalians and others with the needs of the world. It provides relief in times of disaster and promotes sustainable development by identifying and addressing the root causes of suffering. Episcopal Relief & Development cherishes its partnerships within the Anglican Communion, with ecumenical bodies and with others who share a common vision for justice and peace among all people focusing on several regions of the world including disasters in the US.