Demand at food pantries rising

BY BILL DOYLE | CFP CORRESPONDENT

The St. Anthony Food Pantry at the Sacred Heart-St. Catherine of Sweden Parish on Cambridge Street didn’t have a lot of food left when a woman in need entered one day about a year and a half ago.
Pantry manager Sandra Kucharski told the woman that she’d try to find her as much food as possible but asked her to say a prayer for a miracle – like the Bible passage in which Jesus turned five loaves of bread and two fish into enough to feed more than 5,000 people.
When Ms. Kucharski came up the stairs to give the woman the little the pantry had left, a man entered and donated a box of food.
“He was like an angel delivering food from heaven,” Ms. Kucharski said. “He said he was driving by and wanted to drop this off. It included everything we didn’t have. So, I was able to give the woman a complete box of food.”
The St. Anthony Food Pantry has seen an influx of Latinos in recent years. After the only volunteer who spoke Spanish left last year, Ms. Kucharski prayed to God to send her someone who spoke Spanish and someone else who spoke Portuguese.
“God always provides,” she said. “It’s amazing how these things work.”
Soon afterward, Diana Mendoza began volunteering and she speaks both languages.
“God cannot be outdone in his generosity, and he hears our prayers,” Ms. Kucharski said. “He just dropped her in our lap.”
Ms. Kucharski, 71, of Worcester is one of about 15 volunteers who operate the food pantry from 9:30 a.m. until 2 p.m. on Thursdays. All are retired and their average age is about 73.
“Jesus said to feed the hungry and that’s what we do,” she said.
On Thursday in the final week of January, the St. Anthony Food Pantry distributed food to 115 families, the most in at least the four years that Ms. Kucharski has volunteered there. The pantry ran out of food that day and ended up giving gift cards to six families. Usually, the food pantry gives meat, bread, pastries and canned goods to 80-100 families. St. Anthony distributes free groceries, but not meals.
Ms. Kucharski said the demand for food at the pantry is up 12 percent since last year and the number of customers who report Social Security as their primary source of income is up 50 percent.
“So, people living on a fixed income are having a very difficult time trying to make it,” she said.
Ms. Kucharski said demand for food rose during the pandemic when people lost jobs and then soared over the past year when inflation hit, and rents skyrocketed.
People from nearby homeless camps and families having trouble paying bills come to St. Anthony for food.
St. Anthony receives the bulk of its food from the Worcester County Food Bank, but also gets some from Shaw’s and Price Chopper. Rachel’s Table brings food from two Stop & Shops.
Ms. Kucharski said the pantry is receiving less from parishioners and that the Worcester County Food Bank has had to distribute food to more pantries, so each receives less.
The pantry has had to dip into its savings to make up some of the difference but has also received food lately from the 365Z Foundation, Reliant employees in Auburn and postal workers.
Ms. Kucharski said donations of food can be dropped off at the food pantry on Thursdays or at the side entrance of Sacred Heart on Sundays. Checks made out to St. Anthony Food Pantry can be mailed to Sacred Heart-St. Catherine of Sweden Parish, Attention St. Anthony Food Pantry, 596 Cambridge St., Worcester, MA, 01610.
Timothy McMahon, executive director of Catholic Charities Worcester County, reported that food distribution has increased by 70 percent at his organization’s food pantries in Worcester, Leominster, Southbridge and Milford since the start of the pandemic four years ago. Last year, the food pantries helped 72,372 individuals with groceries, a jump of 20 percent from the year before
Mr. McMahon said the food pantries in Worcester and Leominster receive most of their food from the Worcester County Food Bank, which has had to curtail monthly allocation to individual pantries due to increased demand from throughout the region.
The Milford pantry relies on private donations and purchases some food on its own. The Southbridge pantry is run by Southbridge Food Share.
Mr. McMahon attributes the increase in need for food at pantries to people being out of work and the rising cost of food.
To compensate, Mr. McMahon said Catholic Charities food pantries have received more private donations and restricted the number of hours they open.
Mr. McMahon said Catholic Charities has still managed to feed as many people as needed but has had to reduce the amount of food distributed to each individual or family. So financial donations are welcomed.
Financial donations to the food pantries can be mailed to Catholic Charities offices at 10 Hammond St., Worcester, MA, 01610; at 196 Mechanic St., Leominster, MA, 01453; at 79 Elm St., Southbridge, MA, 01550, and at 200 Main St., Milford, MA, 01757. Indicate that the donation should go to food distribution. Donations of food will also be accepted.
Mr. McMahon said the clientele of the food pantries has changed a great deal over the past few years.
“There are people who I don’t think would have ever anticipated that they’d be going to a food pantry to get food,” he said, “and we would not have seen them five, six, seven years ago, but now we are.”
The St. Oscar Romero Food Pantry at St. Paul Cathedral distributed food to 17,120 people last year, an increase of 69 percent over the 10,138 individuals it served the year before. The pantry relies on the Worcester County Food Bank for 95 percent of its food, but the amount of food from there increased by only 14 percent from the year before.
As a result, the food pantry at St. Paul no longer distributes more food to larger families. The distribution is the same for everyone regardless of family size.
Charley O’Neill said when he began managing the food pantry a little more than a year ago, the shelves would be full with food to the ceiling at the Worcester County Food Bank. Now the shelves are about a third full, which he attributes to a lack of increase in allocations from the state and federal level.
“They work hard,” Mr. O’Neill said of the Worcester County Food Bank. “They’re always telling us which Congressmen to write to get allotment increases. They do a very good job of doing what they can.”
The St. Oscar Romero Food Pantry is located in the basement of the parish center beside the rectory. Financial donations will be accepted at St. Paul Cathedral, 15 Chatham St., Worcester, MA, 01609. Note that the donation is for the food pantry.
Mr. O’Neill said his food pantry does not serve meals, but does provide such groceries as frozen meat, fruit, produce and canned goods. He estimated that the pantry distributes food to about 200 families per week.
Three to five volunteers distribute food at the pantry, which is open for two hours, three days a week.
“Some of them have been doing this for years,” Mr. O’Neill said.
“They give their time, which is greatly appreciated because they all have lives too. They get to know the routine and they get to know the clients.”
Mr. O’Neill said he tries to schedule at least one Spanish-speaking volunteer for each shift and the volunteers use hand signals to communicate with those who speak different languages. They make it work.
“In the year I’ve been doing it, I haven’t seen any incidence,” Mr. O’Neill said, “where there is any unruliness. The clients are very respectful, extremely appreciative.”
Mr. O’Neill has also seen a rise in demand at a smaller food pantry he manages at Urban Missionaries of Our Lady of Hope Center at 242 Canterbury St. Donations are welcomed there as well.