St. Peter in J.C. turns to constructive collaboration to feed the hungry people on World Day of the Poor
Members of St. Peter Parish in Jefferson City got a chance to serve people in need in an organized, effective manner.
They want to do more of it.
“Oh, yes! It was very well received in lots of ways,” said Abbie Bredeman, MSN, RN, parish nurse for St. Peter Parish and co-organizer of this year’s Community Care event for the World Day of the Poor.
“We learned a lot of good lessons about how to streamline the operation,” she added. “I heard many positive comments about ways this helps people in our community.”
It was the parish’s ninth World Day of the Poor observance, including a scaled-back offering during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Pope Francis, now deceased, in 2017 called for World Day of the Poor to be observed each year on the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time.
He visualized Christian communities seizing the occasion to “make every effort to create moments of encounter and friendship, solidarity and concrete assistance.”
“This was during the pastorate of the late Father Charlie Pardee, who had a great love and care for the poor and needy in the community,” noted Monsignor Robert A. Kurwicki, current pastor and vicar general of the diocese.
St. Peter parishioners responded that year by preparing and hosting a hot meal for people in need throughout the Capital City, especially people with no place to live, in the Selinger Centre next to St. Peter Proto-Cathedral.
“The late Diane Struemph was a ramrod with that, along with our parish nurse, Alice, who just retired, and her husband John,” said Msgr. Kurwicki. “It’s been going strong since that time.”
Although the event was well publicized, attendance was somewhat lower than expected.
Organizers changed strategies after a few years, recruiting parishioners to prepare and serve a hot meal at the Salvation Army Center of Hope shelter, which is open daily.
Meanwhile, parishioner Mrs. Struemph, now deceased, became an integral part of Building Community Bridges, a local nonprofit that offers multifaceted services helping young people overcome obstacles to reaching their full potential.
She helped drive collaboration between the parish and Building Community Bridges for the World Day of the Poor. This led to preparing meals and self-care packs to be distributed to people in need at various locations in the city.
Mrs. Bredeman became the parish nurse at St. Peter this July. She, parish office manager Beverly McCracken and parishioner Delores Lauf set about organizing this year’s observance, which took place during the Churchwide Jubilee of Hope.
Mrs. Bredeman spoke with St. Peter parishioner Kate Amick, director of Common Ground Community Building, a local nonprofit that addresses poverty and homelessness in Jefferson City.
“She’s involved in a lot of social projects here in town,” said Mrs. Bredeman. “One thing she told us is that a lot of organizations are very welcoming and have lots of resources but are often trying to duplicate something that’s already been done, kind of in a vacuum.
“She said if groups would team up and work together, we could go much further in helping people, rather than reinventing the wheel every go-round,” Mrs. Bredeman noted.
Mrs. Amick mentioned a relatively new organization, the Missouri Cares Mobile Soup Kitchen, which prepares and delivers hot meals to various locations in Jefferson City each Saturday.
“When I reached out to them, I was really impressed with how willing they were to partner with other groups,” said Mrs. Bredeman. “All they want to do is help people who are unhoused, with food.”
Mrs. Bredeman proposed working with Missouri Cares for the parish to offer an additional day of meals. This would take place on Sunday, Nov. 16, the World Day of the Poor.
Blessing upon blessing
Mrs. Bredeman had heard about how eager St. Peter parishioners are to help people in need, but she found out for herself when Mrs. Lauf switched the online sign-up page for the Community Care event on a Tuesday and had all the slots filled up by Wednesday. People who hadn’t signed up also came to help.
Mrs. Bredeman rode along with the people making deliveries for Missouri Cares the weekend before the World Day of the Poor, to get a feel for how it works.
The following Saturday, organizers helped deliver meals with a notice saying an extra meal would be delivered the following day.
Parishioners would also offer new socks, personal hygiene supplies, transportation passes, grocery bags stocked with ready-to-prepare meals, and protein nutrition packs.
Volunteers prepared the hot meal in the kitchen of Hoog Hall Hospitality Center next to St. Peter Proto-Cathedral.
Knights of Columbus Fr. Helias Council 1054 donated the pulled pork.
The Student Leadership Team at St. Peter School helped assemble “protein bags,” containing shelf-stable items that are high in protein content.
Volunteers also put together grocery bags containing ingredients and instructions for four low-cost, shelf-stable, family-friendly meals.
“Hot meals were delivered to people who are unhoused, and the grocery bags were for people who have a place where they can cook their own food,” said Mrs. Bredeman.
The volunteers distributed the protein packs along with the hot meals, for people to eat whenever they’re in need of another meal.
“Those were very well received,” said Mrs. Bredeman. “People in need are used to getting whatever is available. But here, you had four family-friendly meals and how to prepare them.”
Altogether, parishioners prepared and delivered about 250 meals.
“We loved being a part of this wonderful day!” stated St. Peter parishioner Ashley Blankenship. “We’re so blessed to be able to pay it forward!”
Msgr. Kurwicki noted that it was Pope Francis’s — and Christ’s — fervent desire for the Church be a hospital for all.
“One of the ways St. Peter’s, being a downtown parish, reaching out to people who are poor and in need is through this day,” the pastor stated. “It also secondarily is a good tool for instruction for all parishioners, especially the young.”
“All around us”
Mrs. Bredeman emphasized that health is holistic.
“You have physical health, mental health, spiritual health,” she said. “When you help people who don’t have food, water or shelter, you’re helping people who lack the most basic provisions for health.”
Most people don’t realize how hard it is for individuals to “work their way up” if they don’t even have the basics they need.
“So non-judgmentally helping people with things like food, water, housing, and doing it with kindness goes a very long way in their journey,” she said.
When people’s need for physical health and safety begin to be met, they’re in a better position to work on other aspects of their health, such as spirituality and mental wellness.
“It also shows that there are many people in the community who care for them as human beings,” Mrs. Bredeman added.
Numerous participants in the Community Care event were struck by the joy and enthusiasm of the people they met.
“What you find is there is so much gratefulness in the eyes and voices of the people you help,” she said. “You can often tell they’re in disbelief that people care.”
In truly encountering people in need, people tend to realize that “most of us have more in common with each other than we are different,” she stated.
Several recipients wanted to keep the giving going. One gave $7 to help with the mission. Another had been given an overabundance of pantry staples from another source and donated it to be given to other people served by the Missouri Cares Mobile Soup Kitchen.
“I found that so profound, because I think it shows the Lord all around us,” said Mrs. Bredeman.
More to come
Mrs. Bredeman is confident that the people of St. Peter Parish and the surrounding parishes would be willing to carry out a similar effort more frequently throughout the year.
“I believe there’s plenty of volunteer and financial assistance here to support that,” she stated.
She said she sees all around her a tremendous desire to give and to help.
“A lot of times, all people really need are the outlets or the organized efforts in which to give,” she said.
She emphasized that focusing on everyone’s common humanness goes a long way.
“I want people to realize that we’re more alike than different, and in order to get where any of us needs to be, we need to have our basic needs met first,” she said.
