Shelves emptying fast; donations urgently needed
Nolan Butler, Impact coordinator for VISTA, assists with distributing food at Catholic Charities’ Charlotte food pantry on Tuesday. (Photo provided by Liz Chandler)CHARLOTTE — The long line of cars winding through the Diocesan Pastoral Center parking lot on Tuesdays and Thursdays to pick up free food from Catholic Charities volunteers is a telling sign of the food insecurity people across western North Carolina are suffering.
The food pantry shelves are emptying as fast as they are stocked, and agency leaders are urgently calling for help.
All three of Catholic Charities’ food pantries – Asheville, Charlotte and Winston-Salem – are experiencing critical shortages of food to give out to local families in need.
“It’s post-COVID effects, inflation, the rising cost of gas and food, wages not keeping up with cost of living and the cost of housing getting more expensive – all of those things coming together” that are driving up the need, says Jesse Boeckermann, Catholic Charities’ Western Region Director.
The current rate of inflation in the U.S. is 8.6%, up from 7% last year at this time, according to federal government data. According to AAA, people across the diocese are paying anywhere from $4.26 to $4.66 at the pumps for a gallon of regular gas – double the average price when the pandemic first hit in 2020.
Food costs are also dramatically up across western North Carolina. In Asheville food costs are now 9.3% above the national average, Charlotte’s are 11.1% higher, and Winston-Salem’s are 4.4% higher.
Boeckermann says his staff has seen an increase in requests for food aid since February. He estimates that where $200 might have enabled clients to purchase 10 days’ worth of food, now the same amount appears to stretch for less than a week.
“Families are being affected, and a lot more children, because families don’t have enough money for food or the items that SNAP benefits don’t cover,” he notes.
Those items include everyday essentials such as toilet paper, laundry detergent, feminine hygiene products, paper products and toiletries.
Catholic Charities tries to supplement those items in addition to providing fresh meat, dairy products and non-perishable food items to help families in need stretch their food supply.
But just as consumers are spending more on food than ever before, so too are charitable organizations working to assist people in the community struggling to put food on the table. “With food costs going up, Catholic Charities’ purchasing power is struggling,” Boeckermann admits. “We are doing our best to maximize purchases from our vendors.”
Catholic Charities partners with The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), a federal program that helps supplement the diets of low-income Americans. Catholic Charities receives free food from TEFAP for its clients, but that amount has been reduced.
Boeckermann explains the need for cash donations is even greater in order for the agency to buy crucially needed items not covered by government food benefits.
At its three food pantries in May, Catholic Charities served 3,123 people. In comparison, the agency served a total of 1,371 people in January.
In Charlotte alone, the number of people seeking help from the food pantry has nearly tripled since January. Staff assisted 665 people at the beginning of 2022 and closed out June by assisting 1,739 people. One day, the staff counted over 70 cars lined up waiting for food outside the pastoral center.
Catholic Charities’ staff in Winston-Salem have also seen a steady rise in the number of families coming to them for help over the past two months.
They are averaging 55 families a week and are bracing for 60-70 families per week over the rest of the summer. They averaged 45 families per week last summer.
“We are in desperate need for household and hygiene items, as we have not been able to provide this service to clients requesting them for almost the last two months,” says Harley Elkins, case management coordinator.
She adds that many families are requesting food items for children, who are home from summer and not receiving school meals.
“Many of our clients have expressed stress due to inflation, and gratefulness for any items that can assist them during this time.”
— SueAnn Howell, Senior reporter
How you can help
Food donations needed now: Non-perishable items including rice, beans, spaghetti sauce, pasta, canned chicken or tuna, peanut butter, jelly, cereal, canned fruits and vegetables, macaroni and cheese, and juice, tea and coffee.
Non-food items are also welcome – including diapers, baby wipes, toiletries, laundry detergent, cleaning supplies, hygiene products, and toilet paper. The Asheville and Charlotte food pantries can also accept refrigerated items such as milk, yogurt, cheese and produce.
Drop off donations:
- ASHEVILLE: Drop off donations anytime 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Thursday. Calling ahead to 828-255-0146 is recommended.
- CHARLOTTE: Drop items off in the lobby of the Diocesan Pastoral Center, 1123 S. Church St., Charlotte, N.C. 28203, anytime 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday.
- WINSTON-SALEM: Drop items off in the lobby of the Catholic Charities office, 1612 East 14th St., Winston-Salem, N.C. 27105, anytime 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday.
Individual donations at all three food pantry locations are always welcome, as are collections from food drives organized by parishes, schools and groups.
Financial donations welcome: Your financial contribution will help Catholic Charities buy items it needs to supplement or fill in the gaps from other sources. Go online to www.ccdoc.org (click on “Donate”).
HIGH POINT — As it celebrates 75 years of service and care in the Triad, the Pennybyrn retirement community announced Monday it will transfer sponsorship to the Diocese of Charlotte in a “responsible and planful” effort to preserve the culture and values of Pennybyrn for the next 75 years.
The Sisters of the Poor Servants of the Mother of God, which founded and has continued to serve Pennybyrn since 1947, said it wanted to take steps now to ensure the retirement center retains its faith-based mission and culture, as Pennybyrn’s current sisters begin looking toward retirement in 2025.
“This is a change in sponsorship only, not in management or mission,” said Sister Lucy Hennessy, S.M.G., mission leader and chairperson of Pennybyrn’s board of directors. “Virtually everything at Pennybyrn will remain the same…(except) the diocese will act as Pennybyrn’s sponsor and be responsible, along with our leadership and the Pennybyrn community, for ensuring that our services remain consistent with gospel values.”
The sisters approached the diocese as their first choice to assume the pastoral sponsorship. Sister Lucy outlined a three-year transition period, during which the diocese will work alongside the sisters to deepen its long-standing relationship with the Pennybyrn community of 400 residents in independent and assisted living, as well as skilled nursing care.
“We want to be responsible and planful,” Sister Lucy said, “and this is the best arrangement we could imagine to continue our charism of love, kindness and compassion for our residents.”
Pennybyrn’s owner Maryfield Inc., its board of directors, leadership team and staff will remain the same, and no changes are planned in operations. As its new sponsor, the diocese will assume the responsibility of acting as steward of Pennybyrn to ensure it remains grounded in faith and aligned with Church principles.
“Pennybyrn has been a treasure in western North Carolina since long before the Diocese of Charlotte was established 50 years ago,” said Monsignor Patrick Winslow, vicar general and chancellor of the diocese. “The bishop is committed to carrying on the sacred mission and values that the sisters have so humbly instilled – and provide the same loving care for Pennybyrn residents.”
In the first year, the transition plan calls for Sister Lucy to retain her roles as mission leader and chairperson of the board. In the second year, the bishop will assign a representative from the diocese to work alongside Sister Lucy and the management team to learn more about Pennybyrn’s operations and culture. In the third year, the diocese’s representative will assume Sister Lucy’s pastoral duties with her staying on to assist.
Pennybyrn was founded in 1947 when the London-based sisters came to the U.S., inspired by the kindness shown them by American soldiers in Europe during World War II. Five pioneering sisters left their families, homeland and everything familiar to serve God and care for people in western North Carolina.
They purchased Penny House, originally built by George Penny in 1927 on Greensboro Road in High Point, and converted it into a convent and a convalescent center with 22 beds called Maryfield. Their mission: to share God’s love by nursing the sick and comforting the dying.
Over the past seven decades Pennybyrn has grown into a 71-acre continuing care retirement community that encompasses 49 independent living cottages, 173 independent living apartments, 24 assisted living and 24 memory support apartments, a new transitional rehabilitation center, and a skilled nursing facility. Pennybyrn also includes a Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration chapel, where some 100 volunteers from neighboring parishes have taken turns (except during the pandemic) keeping vigil every day and night since the Feast of Corpus Christi on June 5, 1994.
“Pennybyrn has always been, and will remain, a dedicated Catholic apostolate serving the needs of people in the sunset of their lives,” Monsignor Winslow said. “It is well known for high-quality retirement living and has proven a regional draw because of its culture of caring and heritage of faith.”
The sisters continue in the tradition of their founder, Frances Taylor, who took the name of Mother Magdalen, caring for their residents with the help and guidance of a board of directors. Four sisters of the Poor Servants of the Mother of God still live in Penny House, including Sister Lucy.
Originally from Limerick, Ireland, Sister Lucy has noted that the founding sisters “embarked on a journey of faith to come to an unknown place and serve a people they yet did not know. They truly had little of this world’s goods or even money in their possessions, but they had a heart filled with faith and with hope, and that is what made the difference.”
The sisters cooperated with God’s will through their obedience, generosity and dedication, Sister Lucy said, as did so many people in the community who stepped forward to help build and staff Pennybyrn over the years.
Pennybyrn has embraced new opportunities as the needs of the elder population have changed, Sister Lucy said. “Keeping before them all the time the spirit of our foundress, Mother Magdalen, to serve God always but not always in the same way.”
That dedication to caring has evolved into a new, vibrant retirement lifestyle and care for people of all faiths. Yet, as the sisters prepare to return to the United Kingdom, Sister Lucy noted, Pennybyrn’s mission remains the same as it did when the original sisters arrived on Nov. 14, 1947: “to demonstrate God’s love for those whose lives we touch.”
— Catholic News Herald