Feeding a Need

SISTERS & FRIENDS ADDRESS FOOD INSECURITY
in the communities where we serve

Bethlehem, Pa. — The Lehigh Valley community that our Sisters have served for more than 70 years again responded to our call to help our neighbors in need, donating non-perishable food, toiletries and cash donations during our 2024 drive-thru food drive at Monocacy Manor on April 27.

Accompanied by employees Ron Williams and Jeremy Unger, Sister M. Virginelle Makos and volunteer Jimmy Villani delivered a truck filled with food and toiletries to West Bethlehem Food Bank’s emergency food pantry at Star of Bethlehem Church, on April 29. A check for $1,475 accompanied the food haul, along with $120 in grocery gift cards. More than $200 came directly from the Sisters at Monocacy Manor who could not get out to shop themselves.

The donations were gratefully accepted by Bo Hintze, who has been in charge of the food pantry for more than 20 years. “We are eternally grateful for the continued support of the School Sisters of St. Francis and Monocacy Manor food drive,” he said. “Your massive donations are keeping our clients nourished. God bless you.”

For the Sisters and the volunteers who helped them — including a student from Spain — the annual drive is a labor of love. “There are many who have to count their pennies,” says Sister Virginelle. “We may not be able to help those who hunger around the world, but we can help those in our territory who are not as blessed as we are.”

Pittsburgh, Pa. — Sister Patricia Ann Mahoney pulls along the curb of the former Annunciation Parish on Pittsburgh’s North Side on May 30, returning for the third consecutive year to drop off two carloads of food and toiletry donations to Light of Life Rescue Mission’s Food Pantry. The delivery amounts to 500 pounds of food and goods, all accompanied by a $1,000 check.

As grateful pantry coordinators Jake Kyriazis and Pam Armstrong unload the donations onto carts for sorting inside, they immediately identify items within the jam-packed boxes that would go back out the door almost immediately. “Oh good, cereal!” Pam exclaims. “That will be gone right away!” She knows the toilet paper wouldn’t last long either.

Through partnerships in the general community and with local churches and schools, the pantry serves families in need in neighborhoods very near to where our Sisters first established roots in 1913. In this way, we stay connected to and continue to serve a North Side community with evolving needs. Back then, we answered the call for Sisters to teach in parish schools. These days, social ministry makes an impact here, as Light of Life distributed some 337,000 pounds of food in 2023.

Our 2024 food collection has been driven by our Sisters and by yet more of our long-standing roots — and the generosity of the Residents and families of Mt. Assisi Place, the personal care home that occupies our former Mount Assisi motherhouse and that remains home to more than a dozen of our Sisters.

“Making a difference is all about people,” says Sister Marian Sgriccia, provincial minister. “The people we serve and the people who walk alongside us in our mission to serve.”

We extend our heartfelt gratitude to all those who donation goods and money to our 2024 Spring Food Drives. Thank you for helping us to help our neighbors in need.