Food pantries feel the need

Although food donations always increase around the holidays, leaders of local outreach centers say they can always use more.

Sister Margie Kelly, director of the parish outreach center at Holy Name of Mary Church, said the center will provide food baskets to needy families this year, which will include canned food, fresh vegetables and meat. “Whatever people give us is what goes into the baskets,” Kelly said.

She noted that the food pantry currently serves more than 90 families in Valley Stream, so all donations help local people in need. But Kelly said she is concerned that there are struggling families that have not yet come to the attention of the center.

Judy Miccio, director of Blessed Sacrament Church’s outreach center, said it is helping more than 100 families. The number has increased, Miccio said, because people who have lost jobs are turning to the church’s food pantry for help. The shelves are always more fully stocked before the holidays than at any other time of the year, she said, but this year donations are down in comparison with previous years.

In addition to nonperishable items, Miccio said, the pantry is in need of gift cards to help with the purchase of meat, fruit and vegetables. There is also a giving tree in the church’s vestibule, listing clothing and personal items that are needed by the families. “I’m concentrating on keeping them full at night and keeping them warm,” she said.

Jocelyn Villanova, of Bethlehem Assembly of God’s House of Hope, said the organization helps nearly 400 families on a regular basis. Villanova said it is struggling to keep the shelves stocked because a food bank that supplies it has less to give. Donations from parishioners, however, have helped the church meet the needs of the families it serves.

Villanova also noted that House of Hope has refrigerators and freezers, so it can accept donations of perishable items.