✨ A Feel-Good Story We Just HAVE to Share! ✨

Cafe Coordinator Tracey, with Jillian, one of the Socktober Sisters

✨ A Feel-Good Story We Just HAVE to Share! ✨
Meet Audrey and Jillian — lovingly known around our St. Joe’s Café as The Socktober Sisters 🧦💙

Seven years ago, these incredible young women first came to St. Joe’s Café with King’s University College volunteers. Even then, their hearts were already set on helping others. Their journey truly began when they noticed a guest walking into the café with no shoes. By the time they tried to help, he was gone — but the moment stayed with them. It opened their eyes to the challenges many in our community face every single day.

From that moment, Socktober was born.

Since then, Audrey and Jillian have:
🧦 Created donation bins in businesses across the city
🤝 Partnered with local nonprofits
🌆 Built beautiful community connections
💙 And collected over 14,000 pairs of socks for our guests here at St. Joe’s Café

And this year? They’ve outdone themselves again.
In October alone, they brought in 3,264 pairs of socks — their most successful year yet! 🎉

To Audrey and Jillian: thank you for your kindness, your dedication, and your giant hearts. Your work reminds us that even the smallest items can make the biggest difference.

To everyone who has supported Socktober along the way: thank you. One pair of socks may not seem like much, but to someone facing hardship, it can mean warmth, comfort, and dignity.

We are so grateful. 💛
Amazing doesn’t even begin to cover it.

— St. Joe’s Café 🧦✨

A Worthy Cause

On May 11th and 12th, Sister Florian, our in-house creative artisan, along with several assistants, held her 5th Annual Craft Sale in the foyer of our residence. It was home to an amazing array of crafts of all kinds.

A feature of the day was a beautiful hand quilted red and white Dresden Plate quilt. It was created by Sister Florian and carried home to Windsor by a lucky winner.  A large, pink, knitted afghan made by Sister Mary was the prize for another happy lady. Other smaller quilts, runners, placemats and quilted bags were on display.  Handiwork including a variety of knitted items such as popular baby sets, socks, dishcloths, afghans, and much more.

The fireplace side of the foyer housed Sister Dorothy Ann’s fine display of books galore: novels, biographies, spirituality, poetry, crosswords, and the like.  Business was humming as staff browsed the interesting possibilities of choosing a book and settling into a favorite pastime come rest and eventide. Other items were hand crafted cards, gently used CDs, and movies.

In keeping with the spring season, Sister Ruth Anne, with her green thumb, offered a variety of plants to whet the appetite of avid gardeners.  Her sturdy tomato plants were the first ones to be snapped up by staff and guests, and taken home to their waiting garden plots.  Other plants, large and small invited beginning gardeners to purchase a begonia seedling or an already potted array of mixed flowers to try their hand at a new hobby.  Free advice was offered with every purchase.

Throughout the days, eager staff, friends, and associates enjoyed searching through the many items offered.  When the doors closed, and generous donations tallied, the bazaar realized a tidy sum to be presented to St. Joe’s Café, the new name for our soup kitchen now in its larger location downtown on Queen’s Avenue.  Once again, we realize that when many hands work together, amazing things happen.  A rousing thank you to Sister Florian, the many helpers, and our kind contributors!

-Sister Jean Moylan, CSJ

Would you like to contribute to our London soup kitchen? Click here to donate & join the giving ❣️