SMYRNA--Over four tons of food was collected for the poor of Kingston, Jamaica during the seventh annual Lenten drive at St. Thomas the Apostle Church.

Each week of Lent, parishioners brought in two food items, including beans, flour, canned meats, oatmeal, vegetables, peanut butter and powdered milk. The 8,400 pounds of food collected was a 20 percent increase over 1997.

The food donated by parishioners was sent to the Missionaries of the Poor, a religious institute founded in 1981 by Father Richard Ho Lung, MOP, who was originally a Jesuit. The institute was officially recognized by the Vatican on March 25, 1998.

Each week of Lent at St. Thomas the Apostle, 15 volunteers packed boxes, donated by two local companies, with the non-perishable food, along with some of the 1,200 shirts and pants donated by a parishioner. Also added to the boxes were plastic bags that will be used by the missionaries to distribute cups of flour or beans to the 500 people in their weekly food line.

During the last week of the drive, parishioners had the opportunity to pledge a small quarterly donation to be sent directly to the Missionaries of the Poor. For the fourth year, a parishioner offered a private donation to purchase 150 chickens which provide a supplement to the basic diet of beans and rice.

The Missionaries of the Poor, made up of seven priests, 60 brothers and eight nuns, care for over 330 individuals of all ages, many of them with profound mental and physical disabilities, in four different houses on a full-time basis. Missions have also been established in India, Haiti and the Philippines.

In 1991, eight members of the St. Thomas parish council visited Father Ho Lung and the missionaries in Jamaica, which has led to a strong bond and many fund-raising events at the church.

Each fall, 25 members of the parish, including three doctors and three nurses, visit with the missionaries and spend four days working in the slums and attending the poor, bathing and feeding them and cleaning and repairing homes.

Last year, St. Thomas the Apostle pastor, Father James Caffery, MS, led the group to Jamaica and visited Riverton City, which is the city dump, attending to the spiritual needs of the poor who live there and assisting the doctors with rudimentary medical needs.

Last Christmas over 1,200 pounds of tuna fish and spam were collected from St. Thomas Giving Tree and shipped to Father Ho Lung as presents for the needy.

Father Caffery said that the outpouring of donations from the parish was an example of God's love.

"Even those not seeing first-hand the abject poverty in Kingston and responding in the manner they have truly represents the Holy Spirit dwelling among us as we provide for the least of Christ's people," he said.