Friday, June 7th • 9:00 a.m. • Parish Center, 2nd Floor Join us with Father Paul of St. Frances of Rome
Please meet Carol Rolfs, a Sharing Board member since 1999 and St. Columbanus coordinator.
I have been involved in the Sharing Board for almost twenty years, beginning when St. Gelasius in Woodlawn was our sharing parish. The school closed and then the church, so we were united with St. Frances of Rome in Cicero as our sharing parish. St. Gelasius had supported a food pantry for years, and we wanted to continue supporting the food pantry with our biannual food drives at Saint Anne. St. Columbanus Church, under the leadership of Fr. Matt Eyerman, volunteered to continue the food pantry at its location.
We have watched the food pantry flourish from 50 families per week to 500 families per week. Preston Mahone, the food pantry director, has developed a relationship with the Chicago Food Depository to deliver fresh produce and meats each week to these families. It is a humbling experience to serve these members of society, many who are working poor. A group of us try to go help distribute food the last Wednesday of each month, and I invite our parishioners to join us. We leave at 8:00 a.m. and endure the rush hour, but it is worth it!
We have so many blessings at our parish that we need to share … talents and treasure that our sharing partners need. Our sharing partners in St. Frances of Rome, St. Columbanus’ food pantry and St. Martin de Porres shelter have been blessed by leaders such as Bishop Mark Bartosic, Father Paul Stein, Father Matt O’Donnell, Preston Mahone and Sister Therese O’Sullivan who serve so many people with so little resources. It has been an honor to work together with these leaders to help make our neighbors have a better life.