The Lazarus Ministry

Mission: Mindful of Jesus’ admonition that “Whatever you did for the least of these, you did for me (Matthew 25:40), SMM Lazarus Ministry seeks to help families living in the Lee Road hotels to move into more suitable housing and to ease the already arduous burden of poverty by making available the necessities of life as the first step to a more fruitful life, especially for children.


The 6th Lazarus Summer Meal Program is coming soon. To volunteer to cook or distribute meals Monday-Thursday, starting June 9 through July 17, please visit this link: https://www.wejoinin.com/sheets/vzevd to sign up.  We need volunteers for

  • Meal Prep in the SMM Kitchen
  • Meal pick-up, delivery, and distribution at Lee Gardens Hotel
  • Support for meal distribution at the Lee Garden Hotel.

Email Teri Pappas at [email protected] with any questions or concerns.

Meal Preparation will start in the SMM Kitchen at 11:30 am to have 50 meals ready for volunteers to pick up by 1:30 pm (if meal prep is finished early, you do not have to wait). If you sign up for meal prep and have not had experience in the SMM Kitchen in prior years, please sign up for Kitchen Training on June 6  at 10 am as well.

Meal Pick-up & Distribution volunteers will pick up meals at 1:30 pm and meet staff from the Winter Park Neighborhood Center for Families (WPNCF) by 2 pm at Lee Gardens Hotel (830 Lee Rd, Orlando, FL) to distribute meals to pre-registered families.. Note: If you are picking up and distributing meals as a "team" or family and do not need "Support," please sign up in both Distribution Columns.

Hotel Distribution Support - We like to have two people distributing each day, both for redundancy and safety.  If you sign up for Support, you can go directly to Lee Gardens Hotel (830 Lee Rd, Orlando, FL) by 2 pm to meet the other SMM volunteer and WPNCF staff to help distribute the meals for that day.

For youth Volunteers 18 or younger - please, have a parent/guardian with you.


2025 Lazarus Event Calendar

  • Summer Meals - June 10 - July 21
  • Back-to-School - August 6 (OCPS Starts August 11)
  • Thanksgiving - November 25 (Thanksgiving is November 27)

If you would like to donate funds to be used by the Lazarus Ministry.

  1. Electronically - go to the donate link on the St Margaret Mary website: https://stmargaretmary.org/online-donation/.  Once you have made your donation, please send an email to [email protected] to let us know so we can follow up with the Parish Administration.
  2. Check - If you prefer to write a check, make the check out to St Margaret Mary Church and write Lazarus Ministry in the Memo Line.

Please sign up to help below:

Fill out my online form.