Begin a Rural Food Pantry The story begins in 1999 when a Baptist woman from Bruce approached some of St. Luke’s parishioners and suggested a joint effort to help get food to the poor in the area. In Calhoun County, there are sixty Southern Baptist churches. Tiny St. Luke’s, with regular Sunday attendance of about forty people, is the only Catholic church in the county. Jean Bryant from St. Luke’s met with townspeople from other churches and reported back to the parish. The small community prayed about a response and, despite the poverty of many of its own members, St. Luke’s decided, in the words of parishioner Vonda Keon, to “take up our burden for the poor.” Jean Bryant became one of the founders of the parish food pantry. After learning about the Mississippi Food Network, which distributes dry products and nonperishable cans of vegetables, meat, and fruit to the poor through churches and other agencies, three parishioners from St. Luke’s traveled more than two hours to the Network’s headquarters in Jackson, Mississippi, for an orientation session. There they learned how to manage their inventory, how to order their products, and how to screen their clients. Persons requesting assistance have to fill out a client eligibility form which asks information regarding number of people in family; proof of income; proof of residence; and personal identification. Sometimes the rules do not apply, especially if someone has just lost their job, etc. Food from the Network, which comes from government surplus and America’s Second Harvest, costs churches like St. Luke’s twelve cents a pound. Donations from a few parishioners provided the seed money to get the project started. St. Luke’s food pantry, called Our Daily Bread, takes place once a month on a Saturday. The week before, volunteers pick up the food in Grenada, a town about an hour’s drive from Bruce. Other volunteers then bag the groceries. When Our Daily Bread began in the summer of 2000, it distributed food to thirty-five people in the first month. This past August, it gave away more than three hundred fifty bags of food. The food pantry remains an ecumenical effort, which also depends on the generosity of local stores and civic organizations. Members of the Christian Methodist Episcopal African American Church donate funds; so do members of the Bruce United Methodist Church. They also help bag food, and their minister, Brother Rex Wilburn, regularly travels to Grenada with Scott Veon from St. Luke’s to pick up the food. Members of the Baptist Women’s Prayer Circle help, too. So do the local Piggly Wiggly, the Big Star grocery chain, the Bruce Furniture store, and the Rotary Club. St. Luke’s parishioners are proud of their work. St. Luke’s is a mission church under the auspices of Glenmary Home Missioners and there is no resident priest. The parish administrator is now Sister Mary Jean Morris, OSF, but the parishioners opened Our Daily Bread in a period when they had no parish administrator. Sister Mary Jean says, “The people at St. Luke’s have a deep spirituality. They are generous and caring because they have been close to poverty themselves.” Click here for six steps to opening a Food Pantry in your parish. Return to Great Ideas Home Page