The lower level of Our Lady of the Greenwood Catholic Church hummed with the activity of a dozen volunteers on Tuesday.
They sorted through a variety of vegetables and boxes of non-perishable food. Snacks were put together and individually bagged. Packages containing fresh dairy and meat, bread, cereal and other staple items were loaded up and hustled up to the waiting line of cars outside.
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the need has seemed to just grow and grow. From March to December 2020, the food pantry served 4,189 households and 15,230 people — and those numbers haven’t decreased much.
“I can’t say we’re much different than those numbers, because it is increasing again,” said Judy Gray, the current pantry manager. “But we’re here because we think God wants us to be here.”
Volunteer Bud Billings loads food into a car on Tuesday at the food pantry at Our Lady of the Greenwood Catholic Church. The food pantry was an integral support for the needy throughout the pandemic, with volunteers from all over the community helping feed the hungry. For their efforts, volunteers were awarded with a plaque on Thursday.
Throughout the difficulty of the pandemic, the food pantry remained a beacon for those in need. Scores of volunteers — parishioners, students and other members of the Greenwood community — worked tireless hours to feed the hungry at a time when the demand was at an all-time high. At the lead was longtime food pantry manager Nancy Kilroy, who guided the effort through calamity.
For their efforts, the Knights of Columbus Council 6138 has presented the food pantry manager with a bronze plaque, which will be installed to commemorate the extraordinary effort made during unprecedented times.
“It’s a big deal, because typically, volunteers do not get recognized,” said Steve Pappas, the Grand Knight of the Knights of Columbus Council 6138. “The persevered, and will continue to do so in the weeks, months and years to come.”
Our Lady of the Greenwood has been operating a food pantry for decades. Initially, it was founded by the church’s Society of St. Vincent de Paul, a ministry within the church. The focus of the ministry is to help individuals and families meet basic needs and achieve self-sufficiency by providing food, clothing, and assistance with rent, utilities and spiritual support.
The food pantry is open four days a week, serving people during the morning and early afternoons on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and then in the evening on Wednesday.
For much of its operation, people would come to the pantry, check in and then walk through the pantry, picking out the food items that they needed.
That became impossible in early 2020.
When lockdowns caused by the pandemic started and people began losing their jobs, the food pantry had to shift their operations quickly to meet the need.
A number of volunteers, who were older and at greater risk from the COVID-19 virus, had to stop serving, for their own safety. That left the pantry at a disadvantage, losing not only experience but leadership.
But organizers — led by Kilroy — were nimble. They recruited grade school and high school students, and their parents, to help with the work. Other younger parishioners also signed up to give their time. Elders from area Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also stepped forward to assist.
Food pantry leaders also shifted their operations. Instead of allowing people to essentially “shop” on their own, they instead would get a bag of food. Through sources such as Gleaners, various government programs and donations from local restaurants and groceries, the food pantry receives different fresh and frozen food items.
Organizers assess their storeroom at the beginning of the week, determining the kinds of food they have and what can go in boxes for their clients.
“You have to figure we’ll have anywhere from 150 to 200 cars served during that four-day period of time,” Gray said.
On pantry day, clients who come are registered by a volunteer while sitting in their car, then go through a list of available items to choose what best suits their family. A group then goes down the list and fills the order, in addition to providing a bag of other foods distributed to everyone.
“Depending on how many people are in the family, they’ll get the right amount of frozen meat, fresh produce and whatever else we have available,” Gray said.
The system has worked well, and even as COVID cases decreased earlier this year, they maintained that process, said Gray, who took over as pantry manager earlier this year.
“We all formed what worked best and was most efficient. It was a team effort, really,” she said.
That team effort, and the impact it has made, is why the Knights of Columbus wanted to honor this group, Pappas said. The Knights of Columbus at Our Lady of the Greenwood is part of a global organization with councils established at individual Catholic churches that supports the church and its ministries, in addition to the community in general.
One of its guiding principals is charity, which made supporting the food pantry an integral part of that mission.
“Many of the volunteers who serve at the food pantry are Knights of Columbus members at (Our Lady of the Greenwood). They’re there almost on a daily basis,” Pappas said.
On Thursday, many of the volunteers who helped over the pandemic gathered together for a small ceremony and presentation of the plaque. The ceremony was a chance to celebrate a difficult period of time, and help future members of the church understand just how vital the efforts of so many volunteers was.
Pappas was motivated to create a plaque for the volunteers after visiting his daughter, recently graduated from Creighton University, a Jesuit university in Omaha, Nebraska.
While on campus, they came across a statue of Jesus Christ. The statue was dedicated to those volunteers who helped their community in surviving the flu pandemic in 1918.
“I thought, ‘What a testament to these people.’ The plaque presentation is not on the same magnitude or level of what happened in 1918, but thankfully, the people who have acted as volunteers came in and worked through issues,” Pappas said.
