July 20, 2023 -- St Joseph Food Pantry Report

July 20, 2023: Households Served – 133; Total People Served – 489

• 111 households participated in the Healthy Pantry Initiative at St. Joseph’s by selecting items from a wide range of fresh produce including onions, eggplant, collards, squash, avocados, potatoes, mandarins, and bananas. Volunteers assisted guests filling and carrying bags to cars for incapacitated family members & neighbors without transportation. 

• Food carried to qualifying households by friends or family members is not included in the Healthy Pantry Totals because these households are not on site to personally participate in the selection of healthy foods for their boxes, nor do they have access to tasting samples.

• Pete and Lubna invited guests to choose a dessert from the table of pastries donated by local bakeries.

• Barbara and Danzi welcomed guests to the sharing table where donated clothes and shoes for men, women, and children as well as household items were displayed.

• Catholic Charities offered diapers to children and adults who needed them. 

• Two supermarket gift cards distributed with donations from the Catholic Daughters of All Saints Parish.

Thursday’s intense heat prompted volunteers to open the doors of St. Joseph’s early and invite guests inside from the soaring midday temperatures of the parking lot. Johanna welcomed them with paper cups and pitchers of cool water enhanced by the flavor of floating oranges slices. The guests, including many weary seniors, gratefully settled into the waiting chairs undisturbed by the crying children who couldn’t be soothed after the discomforting experience of the soaring temperatures. 

Registration was a bit delayed because volunteers could not get connected to the parish server. Jeremy came through with a substitute connection which supported the computers until the closing minutes of the afternoon when the connection broke, forcing volunteers to record the final three households on paper to be entered in the computer program later in the evening. Outside, our team of volunteers, retired seniors, drenched in their own sweat packed and loaded boxes in the cars of guests that drove by for this final pick-up site before heading home. 

Reflecting on the day, it is not the heat but the smiles that volunteers remember from the busy, sometimes hectic, afternoon at St. Joseph’s Food Pantry.

Gustavo, recovering from surgery, will soon be able to return to his construction job. He has been without income and rewarded this week’s volunteers with gratitude that lit up his face as he left the Pantry with fruit, vegetables and a box of food containing frozen chicken and nonperishable food items as well as the $40 Food Lion Gift Card to help feed his dependents for the week. 

Minerva arrived late in the afternoon from her job at a local fast-food restaurant. She looked unusually pale with dark circles under her eyes. Last week Minerva suffered an infection and needed emergency medical care causing her to miss 2 days of work. The medical bill amounted to $110. Without sick benefits, her two sick days left Minerva with a weekly salary of $210 which was further depleted to $100 after the medical expenses. Minerva’s exhausted face relaxed into a soft smile as she selected her fresh produce and received her box of food and $40 Food Lion gift Card to sustain her family of four in the coming week. 

Our guests who come to the St. Joseph’s Food Pantry are loving people who struggle and dream. They are people striving for survival and wellness for themselves and their families. Our volunteers are committed to this weekly endeavor in Burgaw where they find God as they encounter our neighbors in need. 

Thursdays at St. Joseph’s Food Pantry is truly a holy place where people meet for nourishment and spiritual renewal.