The St. Vincent de Paul Society is an international charitable lay Catholic organization established in 1833 by a young college student, Frederic Ozanam. Challenged to put his faith into action, Ozanam created the Society and named it after Vincent de Paul, a saint noted for his work with the poor. The first St. Vincent de Paul Conference on the Pacific Coast was established in Portland, Oregon on October 9, 1869. Their first major contribution to this community was sponsoring one of the finest hospitals on the west coast, St. Vincent s Hospital, 1874, Portland. The Portland District Council represents the combined efforts of 50 local conferences. Each participating Catholic Church has a group of volunteers who meet regularly and do the actual outreach of the Society. These small church-based groups are called Conferences. In addition to coordinating the efforts of the conferences, the council, with a paid professional staff, manages special works programs including operating a prepared and perishable food recovery program, maintaining a food bank, operating a mobile kitchen for the hungry and maintaining a support structure for information, referral, and linkage in assistance to the conference volunteers.

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