December 2017 | St C Food Pantry

Thank YOU!

A big Thank You to the families at St John the Baptist School. Students from Pre-K through 8th grade collected and donated macaroni and cheese, oatmeal, cereal, rice, beans, vegetable oil, canned veggies, masa harina, and flour to the St Camillus Food Pantry to cap off their annual Service Liturgy. Thank you for partnering with us to help families in need!

Special appreciation to all of our friends at St. Elizabeth's for their unwavering support for the Pantries! This year to date, the parishioners have donated over 1867 bags of groceries to help families in need!!

Heartfelt thanks to Holy Redeemer in Kensington for their donation of 175 turkeys and canned food for Thanksgiving.

The St. Camillus Pantry served a record 172 families on the Saturday before Thanksgiving! Thanks to ALL our volunteers for the hard work.

Thanks to Bethesda Magazine for featuring the work of the Pantries in the November/December Issue of the 2017 Guide to Giving!

To all the Food Pantry volunteers,

Thank you all for your generous donations, prayers, and kind words! Ralph arrived in Puerto Rico safely on Monday October 9 with 11 boxes of food, water, batteries, and other supplies. He has distributed this aid to about 15 grateful families who received it with much appreciation and many tears. He also made a connection through a cousin in the states to pick up water from a church in San Juan.
His family is all safe, but they are still without water and electricity - they expect to be without electricity for 6-12 months. We plan on buying at least a couple generators - still working on how to get them shipped and in the right hands. Two households of family members had severe damage to their homes. We will try to help financially with rebuilding of at least one cousin's home.
None of this would be possible without your support. Thank you from the bottom of my heart! Also, some of you have shared our request with friends who are also supporting us - many thanks!

May God bless each of you!

Chris Quinones

Pantry Updates

The registration teams will be very busy for the first few months of the new year, as we will be busily updating the required paperwork for clients who are Montgomery County residents. We will staff extra help for these shifts and welcome any new volunteers to the registration team! If you or someone you know is bilingual in Spanish and English, comfortable using a computer, and interested, please contact us at stcamillusfoodpantry@gmail.com

Volunteer Newsletter

Winter Edition-December 2017

Volunteer Spotlight

Longtime volunteer, Delia Naranjo, was introduced to the food pantry by her daughter Carla. She knew the pantry needed bilingual volunteers and knew that her mother had volunteered in the past with the community where she'd lived in West Virginia, so she thought it could be a good fit for Delia. Seven years later, Delia is still volunteering at the pantry and is an integral part of our efforts in the registration room. A fellow volunteer sums it up best when she says, "Delia is fantastic with our clients - patient, attentive, warm,and supportive. She works the triage end of the registration table, and she is organized, thorough, and absolutely invaluable."

When asked why she enjoys volunteering, Delia says, "It's because I like to help people. I feel that there is always something I can do to help others. I try to put myself in their shoes and think how grateful I would be if someone tried to help me."

Delia Naranjo

Delia was born in Ecuador, where she worked as a surgical nurse. Later she worked as an office manager and used her nursing profession skills as an advocate to improve the health and social issues of the community where she lived. Thank you, Delia, for sharing your talents and love for people with the food pantry ministry!

Ralph and Chris Quinones

Ralph and Chris have been volunteering in the food pantry ministry for seven years now. Ralph says, "We became involved when we first saw the request in the church bulletin. We came to help on a Saturday morning, and when they found out we were retired they said they could really us on Thursdays." On Thursdays, Patty Kolar has groups of volunteers coming to one of the two pantries to meet the weekly, or sometimes biweekly, food delivery from the Capital Area Food Bank. A rotating team of volunteers does the shopping, vehicle loading, and driving, then the other group is on hand at the pantry waiting for the vehicle to arrive. The food is unloaded, taken down to the pantry, and put on the shelves.

Ralph and Chris had been a part of this effort for several years when Jean Guevara, who schedules our Friday and Saturday volunteers, found out they were available on Fridays and happy to help then as well. As an added bonus, Ralph speaks Spanish, so while Chris is working in bagging and distribution, Ralph is around the corner registering our clients to receive food.

When asked why they volunteer, Ralph insists, "We enjoy it, because it gives us an opportunity to give back to the community that gave us so much. An extra benefit is that we get to meet so many great people who also volunteer, so we've made some new friends."

Besides the many hours they log at the pantry, they also volunteer at their daughter's school to help distribute food. Thank you, Ralph and Chris! Our community is better because of you.

To Read Stories About Our Other Amazing Volunteers

Click HERE

How the Food Pantry Directly Helps Those in Need--A Personal Message

Welcome Back!

Longtime volunteer Dave Roberts is back home for the winter, and we are delighted that he is resuming his volunteer activities at the food pantry. Before we "went to press," we managed to get a few words from him to share with his many friends in the pantry family.

Three years ago, shortly after turning 70, I decided I wanted to live outdoors for a whole season, so I hiked the Appalachian Trail. It was such an awesome experience, I didn't want to stop. So I kept going, and in the years since I have gone over 21,000 miles, on foot, bicycle, or kayak, tracing an unbroken line back and forth across the country. Find details on my website https://elusive.blog.

This adventure has restored my faith in the human condition. I have met so many warm-hearted, generous people - folks who just want to help you along your way. And I have deepened my appreciation of the wonders of nature.

HOW TO HELP THE PANTRY DURING THE HOLIDAYS

Continuing to Serve

We are thankful to be able to serve the people in our community in need of help. The graph below shows the number of families served by the Pantries each month.

Please encourage your friends and loved ones to consider giving a gift in your honor to the Pantry. All donations directly support the Pantry. We are an all-volunteer ministry.

We have three easy ways to give:

1) Write a check made payable to the St. Camillus Food Pantry and send it to the church address or drop in the collection at church.

2) Send your donation (check or money order) to our mailbox at:

St. Camillus Church Food Pantry

1600 St. Camillus Drive

Silver Spring, MD 20903

(Feel free to email us to let us know a donation has been sent by mail)