St. Matthew parishioners launch 18th annual Monsignor McSweeney World Hunger Drive
CHARLOTTE — St. Matthew Church is holding its 18th Annual Monsignor McSweeney World Hunger Drive starting this week and continuing until Oct. 4 – but this year’s effort will operate a bit differently.
Instead of truckloads of food donations and its traditional meal packing event, where parishioners pack upwards of 300,000 meals, this year’s Monsignor McSweeney World Hunger Drive will be a virtual one. Contributors are asked to donate online towards the parish’s $220,000 goal, which will enable the parish to buy and ship more than 240,000 pounds of food and other needed goods, as well as provide funds for education and sustainable projects.
The parish-wide effort supports the Missionaries of the Poor, a religious order that serves the very poorest in Haiti and Jamaica. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, with 80 percent of the population living on less than $3 per day. The Missionaries of the Poor provide care and support for children at St. Marc’s School in Tremesse, Haiti, and at an orphanage in Venezuela.
Over the years, the campaign has provided more than 3.2 million pounds of food and supplies to those in need, as well as providing funds for education, agriculture and irrigation supplies, and stocking of tilapia and chicken farms in Haiti and Jamaica. For example, a gift of $130 through the Monsignor McSweeney World Hunger Drive feeds one child in Haiti for an entire year.
The annual campaign also enables St. Matthew Church to support local food banks such as Second Harvest and Mel’s Diner.
The south Charlotte parish has also come together to support local needs caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the past five months, the parish has donated a total of $250,000 to five local charitable organizations that serve the hungry and the homeless in the greater Charlotte area.
In addition to the impressive amount of food and supplies provided to the underserved, the Monsignor McSweeney World Hunger Drive has established a worldwide family with those they serve, and St. Matthew parishioners have given 41,000 volunteer hours since the start of the program.
For more information, to donate and to view an inspiring video of this campaign and its impacts, go online to the Monsignor McSweeney World Hunger Drive page of St. Matthew Church’s website at stmatthewcatholic.org/world-hunger-drive.
— Catholic News Herald