Sister Rosemarie had “a beautiful soul” said Yurko, but was also a “spitfire,” working tirelessly to get the food bank off the ground with the help of a single mom named Mary Hayes. (Hayes’ son, Sean, became an actor, best known for playing the role of Jack McFarland in the television show “Will and Grace.”)
“Last year, we distributed 100 million meals,” said Yurko. “If there is not a lot of love and providence in that, I don’t know where it is.”
Ramping up food distributions in the middle of a pandemic required creativity and flexibility. Northern Illinois Food Bank set up an online program called My Pantry Express, which allows people to order groceries like fresh produce, dairy, meat and staples online, then pick them up at distribution sites set up at local schools, churches, resale shops and even at a local Walmart in the Chicago suburbs.
Food programs in other parts of the country have also innovated or expanded programs during the pandemic. In Washington, D.C., a food pantry run by the Father McKenna Center recently began partnering with a nearby predominantly Black Baptist church to deliver food to a group of seniors in the church, while in rural Stearns, Kentucky, the Lord’s Cafe, a free restaurant run by the small congregation at Crossroads Community Baptist Church, overcame supply-chain headaches and rising inflation to serve more than 1,500 meals to its community for Thanksgiving. The cafe, which has served free sit-down lunches three days a week for years, also moved to a drive-thru model during COVID, Grant Hasty, pastor of Crossroads Church, told Religion News Service.
People work in a community garden run by Table Farm & Table Bread in Sacramento, California. Photo courtesy of Chloe McElyea
In Sacramento, California, volunteers at a faith-based community garden donated 2,000 pounds of produce this past summer to a local interfaith food bank. The garden is part of a project run by Table Farm & Table Bread, which has ties to a nearby United Methodist congregation.
The group sees growing food as part of spiritual practice, said Chloe McElyea, one of the group’s co-leaders.
Volunteers start their time with a moment of reflection and tend about 50 growing beds on a plot of land rented for a dollar a year from a local Catholic school. The Table Farm grows vegetables and flowers, some of which go to a subscription service for neighbors and some of which goes to charity.
The garden is part of a larger vision for creating community, said McElyea, who is also on staff at The Table United Methodist Church. The group inherited leadership of the local community garden after the person who used to run it moved. McElyea said the church is also in the process of renovating its kitchen in order to start a micro-bakery in the community.
Delivering freshly grown produce like squash, beans, tomatoes and kale, which has just been picked, to a local food pantry has been a real joy, she said. She recalls that her co-leader showed up with crates filled with what she called “beautiful, magenta eggplants,” and was surrounded by people even before getting to the door. One woman, she said, was particularly thrilled by the chance to get some of the produce.
“The eggplant was this beautiful, precious thing that she could use in her cooking in a way that was exciting,” she said. “It just really tapped into the beauty of food and how food reaches us on so many different levels and across cultures.”
St. Anne’s has tried to provide a mix of food, including staples, vegetables, frozen meat, along with eggs and dairy. In summer and fall, they get additional fresh produce from local farms and community gardens through connections made over the past year by Dick Hattan, a retired health care executive and member of St. Anne’s, who organizes the biweekly pantry. Some days, produce that was just picked that morning has ended up at the pantry.
