In 1982, a man named Michael Fender, alarmed at what he correctly diagnosed as a growing societal affliction, established a food pantry.
The Michael D. Fender Memorial Food Pantry at the Church of the Ascension has worked continuously to ease the problem of hunger in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan ever since.
In 1983, a group of clergy, West Village businesspeople, and gay and lesbian activists founded the AIDS Resource Center, which was renamed Bailey House in 1995. An Ascension ministry to the residents of Bailey House, a hospice for persons with AIDS, was established later.
Now incorporated under the name Ascension Outreach, Incorporated, these ministries continue to serve those in need.
Board of Directors:
The Rev. Mark Hummell, Executive Director; Stanley M. Ackert, III; David Cholcher; Vinh Do; Constance Dondore; Lisa Dunn, Vice-Chair; Meline Kasparia; John Merryman; Martha Mitchell; Katherine Monaghan; Monique Mulcare, Treasurer; Mary Kay Rafferty; Matthew Snow, Secretary; Isabel Spencer, Chair; and Stanley Weinberg, Observer from the Vestry