Help us feed the poor

Monday, February 9, 2009

Victor Martell - St. Vincent de Paul Society

BLOGGER PROFILE

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is one of the few lay organizations that helps the needy and visits them in their homes. We do not interview people in our offices, nor do we require that they fill out any paperwork before we offer them help.

This naturally makes us more knowledgeable as to the reality we are presently living: we can measure it by the number of cases that increase on a daily basis. Every day more families ask for help, and we can corroborate that they need it since we visit their homes.

Many of those who approach us are asking for the most basic help: food, because they simply do not have it or cannot afford it. This happens to people on fixed incomes; often, at the end of the month, they do not have the funds to go shopping for food or they do so with great limitations.

The high cost of food, on top of the high cost of gasoline, also creates difficulties for families. Even if the husband and wife both work, they sometimes face real difficulties finding enough money to buy food for themselves and their children.

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is trying to fill this basic need for food of a small segment of our population or at least help so that they can eat better. We do this now in a limited number of cases, at our parish conferences, but still there are a great number of people who are needy, many of them with children, and unfortunately we cannot help them all.

That is why we want to establish the Pan de Cristo (Bread of Christ) Center where we can house and distribute bulk quantities of food for distribution to the poor. The center will follow some important rules that are consistent with our mission and spirituality as the Society of St. Vincent de Paul:

• We will provide food only to those families who have been previously visited by
  a member of the Society, at their respective parish conferences. When they are visited, a voucher will be provided for them to come on a pre-assigned date to obtain food in accordance with the number of persons in their family.
• The center will be directed by the volunteer members of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, who will be trained to deal with love and discipline with the persons who seek our help.
• The center will not distribute cans, food baskets or any kind of food that has reached its expiration date or is in a state of deterioration.
• The center also will be used as a point of distribution in case of natural disasters.

Victor Martell
President, Archdiocesan Council, St. Vincent de Paul Society