Fairfield County Look - Faces of Philanthropy: Breaking Bread

Faces of Philanthropy: Breaking Bread

Photography by ChiChi Ubiña

What is St. Michael Women’s Association?
St. Michael Women’s Association (SMWA) is an organization within the parish of St. Michael the Archangel Roman Catholic Church in Greenwich, Connecticut and St. Timothy’s Chapel in Banksville, New York. The Association is committed to bringing parish women together in social, spiritual and humanitarian outreach programs through out the year. Proceeds from the sale of the cookbook benefit the Scholarship Fund for students of the parish, and our other charitable outreach programs.

Name of your Cookbook
Breaking Bread - The title was chosen because it is in dining together that families are forged and friendships formed. Parishioners, local restaurant chefs, all three Greenwich selectmen, our chief of police, clergy and even Bishop William Lori’s mother graciously shared their favorite, tried and true recipes in an outstanding community effort. The book contains more than 350 recipes from over 150 contributors. We are convinced and hopeful that it will appeal to many and that they will purchase it. Our markets include:
a) those who like to cook
b) those who like to read cookbooks
c) those selecting a special gift
d) people who want to support our Projects

How did the cookbook project get started?
Annually our Association, SMWA, raises money to support our projects to award Scholarship monies to children of our parish and to support our outreach programs. Typically we sponsor a luncheon and/or a cocktail party with silent and live auctions. The last four or five years we have also sponsored a raffle for gift certificates for travel on Jet Blue. This year we decided to publish a cookbook instead of the raffle; thought it would create interest and result in more money. We had a small efficient committee and lots of support from our parishioners, friends, family and people within the Greenwich community. Morris Press was chosen as our Cookbook Publisher, they have been in business since 1933, and had many tools and much expertise to assist us. Next step was to solicit recipes, then data entry, collation, formatting and proofing over and over. Now we need to sell them to collect monies after our hard work.

Committee Members:
Mary Murray, Chairman
Rosemarie Anner
Maria Fellows
Lavelle Shields

How to obtain copies:
Breaking Bread is for sale for $20 per copy plus $5 shipping and handling if you wish to have it mailed. If you wish to purchase send a note to COOKBOOK, St. Michael Church, 469 North St, Greenwich, CT 06831. Include a check made payable to St. Michael Women’s Association.