Help Feed Hungry Children, Families and Elders This Easter
March 31, 2009
I had to drive slowly down the single-lane dirt road to Mr. Edgar Goodwin’s home. Recent heavy rains washed deep gullies through the red clay road, which made it nearly impassable. Edgar is a 79 year old amputee who lives in a rundown house with no working bathroom. Sister Pat, our outreach minister and I were bringing him a food bag with bananas, peaches, chicken and vegetables.
When I make a visit like this, I am sorely troubled by the depth of poverty, hunger and illness elders face, especially in isolated pockets of rural counties. Often their family caretakers are as bad off as their parents – suffering from layoffs, ill health and no transportation.
Edgar drove a logging truck for many years, a steady job that supported his wife and children. After his children grew up, he and his wife moved down this isolated patch of road to care for his elderly parents until their death. When his beloved wife died last year, his diabetes took an alarming turn and he had to have a leg amputated in order to save his life.
It is heartbreaking to see how much he struggles to get by, hidden away in this remote area. When I saw this vulnerable man with his tattered clothes and empty cupboards, I was reminded of what our Missions Founder, Father Frank Casey, wrote 70 years ago:
“I am used to seeing dismal poverty, but I’m not hardened enough to stand what I saw ... some of the most neglected elders I’ve ever seen: miserable, destitute, sick, homeless, old people. I started to take care of them right then.”
Father Casey had a tender heart for homebound elders and he couldn’t stand to see an elder neglected or hungry. Neither can I. That’s why I’m determined to set up a new food pantry in Pine Apple. We are seeing many more needy elders, children and families than ever before due to the high layoffs that hit the struggling poor hard during this economic crisis.
Sister Pat, who will run the pantry, is a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Rochester, an Order that has faithfully ministered with us since Father Casey first brought them from New York to Selma over 65 years ago. I consider their selfless partnership a great blessing to these Missions and to the poor we serve.
The new pantry will feed hundreds of hungry people like Mr. Goodwin, living in rural Wilcox County, where several Sisters of St. Joseph serve, and poverty is among the highest in the nation. Since January, job loss in this backwoods county has been devastating, with soaring unemployment rates. We have to increase our feeding ministry to help the destitute in these tough times.
We plan to locate the food pantry near our senior day care, our preschool programs and the health clinic serving the “poorest of the poor.” The clinic is staffed by two other Sisters, a doctor and a nurse practitioner, who minister to those with no health insurance and no where else to turn.
When I saw the numbers of hungry people increasing at such an alarming rate, I wrestled with several ideas to handle the large amount of food needed to help them. Keeping the cost to a minimum, we build a small but sturdy building for $27,000 that will store canned food and perishables.
I depend on your donation of $20 to buy much needed cans of peas, peaches and stew for the Easter food bags. A gift of $26 will buy chicken, rice and fresh bananas. If you can manage a special Easter gift for our new pantry to make this dream come true, you will be helping us to feed people like Edgar who have worked hard all of their lives and now suffer from chronic illnesses and despair.
I remember back in 1981, when the Edmundites first came to this small community with the Sisters of St. Joseph. There were a few dilapidated school buildings sitting on a rough red dirt hillside. The Sisters dreamed of setting up a ministry, a health clinic for the sick, a learning center for little children and an adult day care center for handicapped seniors. All of these plans have become realities because of the generosity of people like you.
Please join me this Easter in showing our Lord’s devotion to the poor. He did not turn away the hungry crowd who came great distances, but fed and healed them (Mark 8:1-10). You are in my daily prayers and I thank God for your compassionate heart for the hungry living in remote communities, far from hope.
Serving the Risen Savior,
Rev. Richard Myhalyk, S.S.E.
