St. George's Food Pantry:
Serving Christ in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas
Your individual, church group, church school or parish-wide donations are very much welcomed! Thank you for your continued support!
Purpose:
1) To continue serving low-income families in our Hidalgo Country, Texas neighborhood who come to us asking for food, diapers, school supplies and other direct aid assistance. Hidalgo County is statistically the 2nd poorest county in the entire USA and St. George’s is located only a few miles from the Texas/Mexico border along the Rio Grande.
2) To serve by our action and example as an Orthodox Christian witness and outreach in this borderlands region.
3) To provide opportunities for parishioners, local youth and adults, and visiting Orthodox youth volunteers to experience serving others through the St. George’s Food Pantry.
Inspiration:
History of the Food Pantry Program
From St. John of Kronstadt
(My Life in Christ: Part 1, Holy Trinity Monastery pg. 182):
"What infinite nothingness our food and drink represent on the one side,
and what infinite grandeur the man himself who is fed by them represents on
the other side! Is it not the greatest insanity for man, for this image of
God, for this partaker of the divine nature, for whom... 'God may be all in
all' (I Cor. 15:28)... to grudge food, drink, clothing, dwelling, and
anything else earthly, corruptible and transitory! Therefore, do not let us
be sparing of anything for our neighbour! O, what a great honour it is - to
feed, to clothe, to give rest to the image of God! Most-gracious and
Most-bountiful God; fill our hearts with mercy and bountifulness!"
See photos of St. George's Food Pantry at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8135007@N03/sets/72157603815362178/
Fr. Antonio Perdomo arrived in the Rio Grande Valley to be the Pastor of St. George’s Church in January 2002. It soon became apparent that the need for food and other assistance was very great indeed, as testified by the frequent requests made by those from our local community, who came both to the Church and his home, hungry and requesting food for themselves and their families. Nearly everyday, someone knocked on the Church doors asking for food. When the Parish kitchen had nothing available, it was the Perdomo family's own pantry which was raided. Their Pantry was raided frequently to share with other, but the needs were far greater than could be accommodated in this manner. So, what was at first an informal effort to respond to the need to feed those who regularly came to the Church later became a formal program.
With the blessing and support of the Parish, the doors were opened to St. George’s Food Pantry in the summer of 2004. Since that time, the Food Pantry has quickly grown to serve over 100 families each time it is opened to serve. The local Parish donates staple foods and supplies, as do those in our community. Our Parish’s International Bake Sale included a “Give A Can; Get A Cookie” component to help collect canned food supplies. Local businesses and residential retirement communities have also volunteered to be collection sites for canned goods. We long to make this a Pan-Orthodox effort! St. George's is geographically isolated from other Orthodox Christian parishes. Even though we are the only Orthodox Church in the Rio Grande Valley, and we serve our Lord Jesus Christ here on behalf of all Orthodox Christians. We pray to become “Partners” with the Pan-Orthodox Christian Community—both Parishes, and individuals or families—found throughout the region and this North American continent.
Each time it opens, St. George’s Food Pantry serves over 100 families – including many women with children, elderly and handicapped. At Thanksgiving, we shared 108 turkeys, and still had to turn away several families. Funding food and administration costs for the ever-increasing numbers who come to us continues to be one of our greatest challenges.
From St. Basil the Great:
“The bread in your cupboard belongs to the hungry man; the coat hanging unused in your closet belongs to the man who needs it; the shoes rotting in your closet belong to the man who has no shoes; the money which you put in the bank belongs to the poor. You do wrong to everyone you could help, but fail to help.”
Whom does it serve?
St. George’s Food Pantry will continue to provide for as many of those who come to us as we can possibly serve. Most participants are Spanish-speaking, recent immigrants to the USA, women with children and often multi-generational extended families to feed. Many of those served are elderly and/or handicapped and live on fixed incomes. Much of the population in our Church’s surrounding neighborhood live at or below the official national poverty level. Some have no other service options, because of immigration status challenges, and language barriers. Transportation difficulties and proximity of service also plays into our need to directly serve our neighbors. A number of participants must ride with others or ask family members, neighbors or friends to bring them to the Food Pantry, as they have no transportation. Generally, we open two Wednesdays per month. Due to schedule conflicts and out of country travel (to Mexico), during last January, the Food Pantry was only open once. The following report shares our official statistics for 2006 from January – October. November numbers and beyond will reflect the drastic increase in participants now served.
Program/Project Activities: What specific activities are proposed to carry out this purpose? Give details about the individual aspects of the project/program.
Currently, St. George’s Food Pantry opens to serve participants twice a month, on Wednesdays. Volunteers meet Fr. Antonio at the Church at 8 AM. Volunteers and their trucks and/or vans follow him to the Food Bank of the RGV. There, Father and the volunteers pick up 3,000 lbs. or more of food and other items ordered from the Food Bank of the RGV (costing 14 cents per pound), plus any “freebies” which are available. Cases of food are then transported back to St. George’s Hall and are unloaded, unpacked and portioned into family-sized boxes. Before 8 AM, there is usually line forming outside the Hall. By the time Father and the other volunteers return from the Food Bank, the Church parking lot is entirely FULL and a long line of participants wait for the Food Pantry to open. When the first round of approximately 50 food boxes is ready to distribute, Father begins letting participants come into the Hall to register and fill out required paper work. Food distribution begins. As space becomes available, another 50 food boxes are prepared for waiting recipients. Everyone works until all families have been served. The last few months, we’ve been feeding over 100 families each time we’re open. Because we’ve run out of food, we have had to turn away some who came later in the day, even though the Food Pantry was still officially “open”. After the food is distributed, the area is cleaned up by volunteers. Some of our volunteers are St. George’s Parishioners. Some are local home-schooled youth and mothers. Others are regular participants and recipients of the program.
Program History: This request is to continue funding an already-established, on-going program, but one which is not yet able to financially function on its own, especially with the current level of demand and growth. The program began in 2004 and has grown from serving only 12 families and individuals in September 2004 to serving over 200 families in November 2006.
Individual Donations: During the past year, we have developed a small base of regular, monthly or semi-monthly contributors. Even small, steady donations of $20, $25, $35 a month help out tremendously! Some individuals have monthly drafts sent directly from their bank accounts. Having a steady, reliable income is extremely helpful. Besides regular, monthly donations, we have an ongoing stream of “one-time” or occasional individual donation sources. We continue to cultivate and encourage one-time donations, and are very thankful when these gifts are received.
2007 Food Pantry: Participants Served
Families Adults Children Total
January
184 385 418 803
February
217 450 472 922
March
175 373 361 734
April
177 369 371 740
May
181 370 378 748
June
207 469 412 881
July*
112 215 222 437 *Open only once in July.
August
208 462 387 849
September**
96 219 193 412**Open only once in Sept.
October***
313 588 586 1,174
November
218 455 405 860
December
218 452 489 941
**Open once in September, because of RGV Food Bank Inventory conflicts.
*** Made up for by being open three times in October.
2007 Totals Served
Families Adults Children Total Individuals
2,306 4,807 4,694 9,501
Since the inception of St. George’s Food Pantry project several years ago, well over 25,000 people who live in the Rio Grande Valley have been fed and served.
