Ministries of Mercy - Food & Clothing at 6363 9th Avenue North, Saint Petersburg, FL 33710 US - Nativity Food Bank and Pantry
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Nativity Food Bank and Pantry |
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Nativity Parish Feeds Souls
By JAMIE PILARCZYK
Sue Sutko drives up from Gibsonton to Dover every week to pick up food for the Daystar Faith Center. With the help from Nativity Food Bank, she feeds 50 lunches a day, five days a week to the homeless, the disabled, veterans and to itinerant carnival workers.
By JAMIE PILARCZYK
Sue Sutko drives up from Gibsonton to Dover every week to pick up food for the Daystar Faith Center. With the help from Nativity Food Bank, she feeds 50 lunches a day, five days a week to the homeless, the disabled, veterans and to itinerant carnival workers.
“These guys are really generous to me,” said Sutko, the center’s director.
Sutko is among about 80 organizations, churches and community groups receiving food from Nativity’s outreach ministry consisting of the food pantry and food bank.
The food pantry, based out of the Brandon parish, serves about 156 families in the immediate Brandon area. The families receive assistance weekly for three months.
The food bank in Dover acts as a clearinghouse of food donations, which provide about 56 small food pantries and street ministries weekly and about 25 others occasionally with food for distribution in Hillsborough and Pasco counties.
“There are days when it’s like feast or famine,” said Jess Limtiaco, a five-year volunteer who comes twice a week to the food bank.
His wife, Addia, who volunteers in the food pantry at the church, asked him to get involved when she saw the need for help. The retired letter carrier for the U.S. Postal Service said he likes the camaraderie.
“It’s the interaction with the volunteers,” Limtiaco said.
The food bank and pantry outreach has grown since its inception in 1983, from one room in a shed on Nativity’s church grounds off East Brandon Boulevard, to the big East Hillsborough County warehouse, 13295 E. Highway 92.
“We’re only doing this by the grace of God,” director Pat Le Jeune said.
No contracts, no paid agreements, just a regular donation of food from the Publix Super Markets distribution center in Lakeland. Volunteers make three trips a week to pick up the donations and accept food from other vendors as well. Donations collected in the parish are kept for the parish food pantry, servicing Nativity ministries only.
Le Jeune says the pantry and food bank serve two purposes, that of feeding the hungry as well as involving about 90 retirees (mostly from the Nativity Friendship Club) with a social outlet. Mornings at the pantry can seem more like a social gathering than volunteer work, Le Jeune said.
“It’s remarkable how well it works,” said Le Jeune, the only paid employee who was hired in 2000. “It’s a pleasant, joyful place.”
The food pantry and bank run on about a $100,000 annual budget with assistance from community and corporate donors and fundraisers, enabling them to distribute about 3.2 million pounds of food a year.
For Mary Schmidt, who has been coming for the last 15 years to the food bank with her husband, Bill, volunteering gives her a sense of purpose.
“It makes you get up and out of bed,” Schmidt said. “It makes you feel good. You’re feeding people.”
Nativity Food Pantry
- 11,252 families with 777 babies served in 2007
- 669,791 pounds of food distributed in 2007
- Volunteer opportunities 7-8 a.m., 1:30-4:30 p.m. Thursdays
Nativity Food Bank
- 81 organizations assisted
- More than 2.5 million pounds of food in 2007
- Volunteer opportunities 7 a.m. to 12 p.m. weekdays
