Worthy Brothers of Elder Council, I come to you today with an appeal for assistance for those in our larger community who are in need of help during these unprecedented times. As part of Supreme’s ‘Leave No Neighbor Behind” Covid-19 response https://www.kofc.org/en/news-room/leave-no-neighbor-behind/index.html , one initiative has to do with “Feed the Hungry”. The goal is to support local food pantries with donations of time and treasure.
This idea accomplishes an objective beyond the obvious support of those in need of food during a difficult time; it allows Elder council and the St. Gertrude parish community an opportunity to rally behind a goal of helping others. We have seen time and again how giving the St. Gertrude community can be – but for the last 2 months, both the council and the parish have been relegated to the sidelines unable to accomplish much in the way of community support – we think there is pent-up demand to help! By the way, know that this initiative has been vetted by the council Exec Committee, St. Gertrude Business Manager Deacon Mike Muse, and Fr. Clement – all have approved the program.
Here’s the plan:
– Who are we helping? We will support Catholic Charities of Southwest Ohio and their ‘Food for All’ program https://ccswoh.org/food-for-all-pantry/. CCSWO sets up temporary food pantries at 5 locations each month in the rural eastern counties of the archdiocese – see link for details on the program.
– How will we help? We will solicit food donations from the parish via St. Gertrude’s Flocknote communication system – we will ask parishioners to drop off donations on Monday May 25th – yes, that’s Memorial Day and the 1st day that the public can once again attend mass at St. Gertrude! We think that will be an opportune day for folks to stop by the church.
– What can Knights do to help?
1) We need about 10 Knights to be at St. Gertrude to accept and sort donations throughout the day on Monday May 25 – suggested rotation is 2 Knights each per 2 hour shifts between 8AM and 4PM – food will be stored in the gym.
2) We need several Knights with pick-ups and/or vans to deliver donated food to 2 of the food pantry locations as follows:
– Tuesday May 26 in West Union (Adams County)
– Thursday May 28 in Hillsboro (Highland County)
Both locations are about an hour and 15 minute drive from St. Gertrude. We need to be on the road about 7AM to arrive by 8-8:30AM. You can choose to stay and help sort and bag food between 9-11AM; the pantry is open from 11AM-1PM – or you can choose to leave after dropping off the food. My contact at CCSWO tells me she is trying to keep the # of volunteers to a minimum for social distancing purposes but she won’t lnow until a couple days before the events on how many volunteers she will have.