CCHD grants distributed

Buying a commercial refrigerator.
Paying a family’s rent.
Helping with staff salaries or supplies.
These are among ways local organizations plan to use grants from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development.
Bishop McManus awarded 19 grants totaling $17,600 last Friday at St. Peter Parish’s gym. The grants represented the local portion of the annual Catholic Campaign for Human Development collection taken up in 2020.
CCHD is the domestic anti-poverty program of the U.S. Catholic Bishops, working to carry out the mission of Jesus Christ. It began in 1969.
The CCHD collection is taken up on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Some 75 percent of the local collection will be used to fund grants for area programs next year.
“While these grants seem small, I am always inspired by how they act like seeds which develop into great programs and services for the people they serve,” said Bishop McManus. 
The largest local grant from the 2020 collection – $2,000 – will be used to buy a commercial refrigerator for St. Anne’s Human Services Food Pantry, said Elaine LeBlanc, director of the human services program at St. Anne Parish in Shrewsbury. Any money left over from the grant will be used to buy gift cards to help people get items the pantry does not have, she said.
“We thank the committee so much for that very generous donation,” Mrs. LeBlanc said. “We are overwhelmed, and we’re absolutely thrilled.”
The pantry has several refrigerators, but they are not designed for commercial use and frequently break down with the amount of use they get, Mrs. LeBlanc said. Commercial refrigerators are very expensive and Melinda Neis, food pantry manager, has been researching options in preparation for buying one.
The pantry, which gets food from the Worcester Country Food Bank and local businesses, has more than 1,000 visits per month.
The Marie Anne Center at St. Bernard Church at Our Lady of Providence Parish in Worcester got two $1,000 grants for its after-school and English-as-a-Second-Language programs. These are among programs the center has offered since opening 20 years ago, said director Sister Michele Jacques, a Sister of St. Anne.
The grants can help pay the staff or go toward supplies, she said. She works full time and has four part-time staff.
“The children who come here (to the after-school program) are either neighborhood children or immigrant children,” Sister Michele said. They come Monday through Thursday and do homework or read. If there is time left, they can play.
“We’re serving the underprivileged – people on the margins,” she said.
One of the $800 grants will help pay rent for a family in need, said Dennis Featherstone, president of the St. Vincent de Paul Society at St. Mary Parish in Uxbridge. He said the Society has received a CCHD grant for the last five years.
“A lot of people are living paycheck to paycheck,” he said. Unexpected medical bills or car repairs can put them behind on paying rent. So, one way the St. Vincent de Paul Society helps them is by paying part of the rent directly to the landlords. It is usually better if tenants can stay in their present home rather than relocate, he said.
Grants from the 2020 collection are as follows:
A $2,000 grant went to St. Anne’s Human Services Food Pantry, St. Anne Parish, Shrewsbury.
Eight $1,000 grants went to: Pernet Family Health Service, Worcester; Mentoring Program, St. Peter Parish, Worcester; Visitation House, Worcester, sponsored by St. Roch Parish, Oxford; Southbridge Senior Citizens Latino Program sponsored by St. John Paul II Parish, Southbridge; St. Peter Parish ESL Program, Worcester; Marie Anne Center After School Program, sponsored by Sisters of St. Anne, Worcester; Marie Anne Center ESL Program, Sisters of St. Anne, Worcester; St. Bernard’s Gym sponsored by Our Lady of Providence Parish, Worcester.
Seven $800 grants went to: St. James Outreach Group, South Grafton; St. Bernard’s Food Pantry at Our Lady of Providence Parish, Worcester; Our Neighbor’s Kitchen, Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish, Winchendon; St. Anthony’s Pantry at Sacred Heart Church sponsored by Sacred Heart - St. Catherine of Sweden Parish, Worcester; Keep People in Housing,  St. Vincent de Paul at St. Mary Parish, Uxbridge; John 21 Community Breakfast at St. Patrick Parish, Whitinsville; St. Louis Multiply Services at St. Louis Parish, Webster.
Three $500 grants went to: Wheels for Change, Catholic Charities in Southbridge; The Emergency Food Pantry at Catholic Charities in Milford; and Personal Essential Needs Services at Catholic Charities in Worcester.