Florida Catholic | Tons Of Love

Tons of love

St. Joseph students and parents collect 14,000 pounds of food for local charity.

BENNET BOLTON | FLORIDA CATHOLIC CORRESPONDENT

Published: 06.06.08

We (House of Hope) brought a truck over to St. Joseph and left it there for that weekend in January. We were astounded. By Sunday night the truck was jam packed with food.

Never have I or anyone else associated with House of Hope seen such an incredible outpouring of generosity and love. It must be a record of some kind in people caring for each other.”
— Kathy Carmody, House of Hope Pantry Director

STUART | Like many children, the students at the St. Joseph Parish School here love to collect things. But their collection is unique: tons and tons of food for the poor.

The students began their food drive in January and, with their families, gathered a staggering 14,000 pounds of food – or seven tons of staples such as rice, pasta and other nonperishables.

The food went to an interdenominational charity called House of Hope, which runs food pantries and thrift stores at four sites in Martin County.

“What began as a weekend effort in January is now a monthly affair. Our middle school students really plunged in, stapling onto each paper grocery bag a list of 10 items that are most needed at House of Hope,” Nicole Aitken, youth minister at St. Joseph, told the Florida Catholic.

“Parents, naturally, are involved, too. Our community at this parish is very dedicated. They have a beautiful sense of social justice. Everyone from lawyers making a great deal of money to working families has pitched in.”

Aitken attributes the idea to Father Noel McGrath, pastor of St. Joseph. He was recently elected to serve on the board of House of Hope.

“Last fall, Father Noel asked if we could get the youth group involved,” said Aitken. “They are in grades six, seven and eight, and they are active in a national program called EDGE, which means ‘Every Day God Experiences.’”

House of Hope is now almost 25 years old, said its marketing director Judy Roberts. The charity “began in 1984 when a few Christian men from various churches saw a need to help the poor by making sandwiches, taking them around in an old station wagon. We are nonprofit. We have four sites covering all four corners of Martin County: Jensen Beach in the north, Indiantown in the west, Stuart in the middle, and Hobe Sound in the south. Each site has a food pantry and a thrift store,” said Roberts.

“The thrift stores provide a third of the money needed to run House of Hope, where we sell donated clothing, household items and furniture. Some of these things we sell and some we give away,” she explained.

Roberts, a Methodist, said that House of Hope is a primary source of hope for people living on a tight economic edge – people working in service industries at minimum wage, elderly residents who struggle to survive on Social Security checks and victims of personal tragedies.

In the past three years, she continued, House of Hope gave away 309 tons of food – equal to 727,000 meals – to some 6,000 individuals and families. A new national study on food banks shows demand for food is up 20% in the past year, Roberts said, and she estimates that House of Hope will need at least 137 tons of food, or almost 323,000 meals, during 2008.

As for clothing and household items, Roberts told the Florida Catholic that 130,000 pieces were distributed in the past three years.

House of Hope also offers emergency financial help to persons living on the brink of poverty, which amounts to a three-year total of $296,000 to more than 800 families and individuals. The money allows them to avoid eviction, the loss of utility service or to buy needed medicine.

Kathy Carmody, a longtime volunteer in the St. Joseph Parish youth ministry, is on staff at House of Hope as the director of the food pantries.

“Father Noel announced this new program at the end of Sunday Masses last December,” she said. “Empty grocery bags were passed out at the church entrance. What began as a one-weekend thing is now a month-after-month activity.

“We brought a truck over to St. Joseph and left it there for that weekend in January. We were astounded. By Sunday night the truck was jam-packed with food. Never have I, or anyone else associated with House of Hope, seen such an incredible outpouring of generosity and love. It must be a record of some kind in people caring for each other,” she said.

Carmody said that House of Hope is assisted by a long list of churches of many denominations.

“We help all kinds of people,” she said. “They can even be your next-door neighbor who has run into a bump on the road of life. Many are low-income seniors and the working poor. Last year 11,000 people came asking for monetary help, but we could take care of less than half of them. At least when they came, we could give them groceries.”

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