The Community Outreach Ministry oversees a diverse program of assisting people in the community and beyond who need human or financial help, made possible by parishioners' contributions. Specific programs include cash and food donations to local food pantries; funding summer day care; scholarships for college and grade-school tuition; monetary help to individuals and families struggling to pay rent, utilities, or medical bills; a holiday meal program; and the provision of holiday gift cards to a local grocery store. The Growing in Spirit Grant Committee is a vestry-appointed ministry created in 2003 as part of the GIS Capital Campaign to fund community and outreach activities from a tithe on pledges received.

For those interested in helping with outreach efforts, there are many ways to become involved:

• Prepare and serve food monthly at My Brother's Table in Lynn
• Prepare food and/or serve twice a month at the Salem Mission of the Open Door United Church of Christ (formerly Crombie Street Church)
• Contribute food to the Marblehead Food Pantry (St. Andrew's is responsible for stocking the shelves during the month of March, but contributions are welcome any time)
• Help prepare Thanksgiving baskets of donated food for local disadvantaged families
• Prepare soups and casseroles for those in need inside and outside the parish
• Participate in the Family-to-Family program by helping our "adopted" families
• Participate in the prison ministry, which supports an inmate at MCI/Framingham through a program known as College Beyond Bars.
• Help review applications for, and select recipients of, the Erik Isbrandsten September 11 Memorial Scholarship, which honors a parishioner's son who lost his life in the World Trade Center
• Join other parishioners who participate in the Essex County Community Organization (ECCO), a community-organizing project supported by churches throughout Boston's North Shore