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January 4, 2021Saturday morning, November 21, 140 volunteers from St. Rose of Lima Church gathered outside—distanced and masked—to obtain their assignments. They then fanned out to canvass six Northeast Portland neighborhoods for non-perishable food donations. The food drive is just one event in a pre-Thanksgiving to Christmas tradition that results in over 12,000 pounds of food collected in six hours.
A parish planning committee has been working since early October, coordinating assignments and donations aimed at preparing over 200 boxes of food for delivery to almost 100 families in need just days before Christmas.
Fr. Matt Libra adds, “Covid has changed so much and hindered so much of what we “normally do” as Portlanders. I am so grateful that there are those among us who would not let covid exempt us from feeding the hungry. Thank you to all the organizers and volunteers who found a way to make it safe to engage in this corporal work of mercy, for all our amazingly generous neighbors who gave over 2,000 lbs MORE than we’ve collected in previous years so that the needy among would not be left out of love.”
In addition to those gathering food, many others distributed donation bags with instructions during the week of November 9. Eighth graders from St. Rose School’s Student Leadership Team and their teachers spent a weekend distributing these door hangers around the neighborhood and promoting the food drive. Boy Scout Troop 100 took on nearly one quarter of houses, while parish and school families took on smaller sections—all adding up to 6,500 houses in total.
“Since the pandemic started, our SVdP conference has been committed to meeting the needs of our most vulnerable population,” adds St. Rose parishioner and conference president, Mark Pinder. “In order to do this, we changed our procedures to ensure safety for our clients and volunteers and still get food, rent and utility assistance to those in need.”
On collection day, volunteers received and sorted donations outside to maintain safe conditions amidst pandemic restrictions. A limited number of additional helpers from the parish’s Knights of Columbus conference then carried the food inside to store it in St. Rose’s own St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry.
Saturday December 19, many of the same families that gathered the food will deliver it to needy families in the Beaumont-Wilshire, Cully, Rose City Park, Hollywood, Grant Park and Roseway neighborhoods. Non-perishable items will be paired with fresh produce donated by local businesses. The parish and neighborhood are blessed by many people’s generosity and willingness to help.
Those in need of food are urged to call St. Vincent de Paul’s emergency line at 503-235-8431.
