Print Issue: March 28, 2002

Annual Lenten Food Drive Nets More Than Four Tons Of Food For Jamaican Ministry

SMYRNA-Two thousand, seven hundred sixty pounds of flour. One thousand two hundred forty-two pounds of tuna fish. One thousand, one hundred twenty pounds of pasta. And more than 300 pounds of peanut butter.

This was just a portion of the food collected and then packed in boxes and bags by volunteers during the annual Lenten Food Drive held at St. Thomas the Apostle Church, Smyrna, during the five weeks of Lent.

Volunteers gathered at St. Thomas the Apostle, Smyrna to pack more than four tons of food and toiletries donated during the church Lenten Food Drive for its Jamaica mission in Kingston. Pictured are l-r, John Artigas, Mary Beth Caruso, Fr. Jarek Topolewski, MS, Pete Rushton and Rose Chuatan.

Altogether, more than 8,000 pounds of food was collected this year for the drive to benefit the church's Jamaican ministry, Missionaries of the Poor.

The drive, now in its 10th year, has been a part of the church's twinning with Father Richard Holung's Missionaries of the Poor in Jamaica. Every year parishioners donate food, toiletries and money, as well as constant prayers for the poor, sick and dying in Kingston, where the mission is located.

The food feeds the brothers who run the mission, and the 400 residents of the Missionaries of the Poor's five apostolates or residences. It is transported for free by a local trucking company to the Air Jamaica Cargo shed at Hartsfield International Airport, where it is shipped, at a greatly reduced rate, to its destination at the mission.

"Every year, the response from parishioners has been overwhelming," said Brian Durham, chairman of the St. Thomas Jamaican ministry. Durham estimated that over the past 10 years the parish has collected 50 tons of food and toiletries. "Each year we put out a list of the food we need, and each year the parishioners respond enthusiastically," he said.

In addition to the food, the children of St. Thomas' parish school of religion collected toiletries, gauze, toothbrushes and toothpaste, as well as antiseptic creams and lotions. One parishioner donated 1,800 toothbrushes this year. Clothes are also donated by parishioners.

Father James Caffery, MS, pastor of Saint Thomas the Apostle, said, "This is truly the people of this parish responding to Christ's message in Matthew, Chapter 25: 'Whatever you do for the least of my brothers and sisters, you do for me."