Ms. Reardon honored for parish food pantry work

By Tanya Connor| The Catholic Free Press

WORCESTER - The bishop came to honor her.
Fellow parishioners and others raved about how she inspires them and helps those in need.
Patricia “Pat” Reardon, who is in her 80s, is a longtime member of Sacred Heart-St. Catherine of Sweden Parish who volunteers there in multiple ways.
Last Sunday she was especially honored for her service as manager of the parish’s St. Anthony’s Food Pantry, from which she retired last month.
Bishop McManus celebrated Mass at Sacred Heart of Jesus Church Sunday and presented Ms. Reardon with a recognition award, after Sandra A. Kucharski, the parishioner who succeeded her as pantry manager, read a tribute.
The celebration continued in the church hall, with lunch, practical gifts and the unveiling of a plaque dedicating the food pantry to Ms. Reardon. Parishioner Cathleen Grant sang the retiree a song she wrote about her.
After presenting Ms. Reardon with the recognition award at Mass, Bishop McManus shared words others used to describe her, including “kind,” “humble,” “compassionate” and “stubborn.”
“She’s Irish, you know,” the bishop said, after sharing that last trait. “Pat, I’m going to send these to Rome (for the) cause for your canonization,” he quipped.
Father Eric K. Asante, parish administrator, continued that theme.
“Thank you, Pat,” he said. “Never, ever, have I seen, or heard from anybody, that you want anything back. … Pat is a saint or angel from above.”
Father Asante thanked Ms. Kucharski for organizing the celebration, and “everyone who is here to celebrate Pat.”
In the tribute, Ms. Kucharski said “only God and Pat” know how many food deliveries she made “without anyone knowing.” Ms. Kucharski added, “That is because, to Pat, St. Anthony’s was never just a food pantry; it was a ministry.”
That wasn’t her only ministry.
“She started the greeter program at the parish because she thought we needed to be more welcoming,” Ms. Kucharski said. “She’s really big on maintaining our covenant with St. Matthew’s (Episcopal) Church. There’s not much she’s not involved in when it comes to helping people.”
Ms. Reardon insists that the pantry continue.
“It’s so necessary,” she told those at her party. “Please keep it going.” She noted that Jesus said of those who feed others, “When I was hungry you gave me to eat.”
“Live by it,” Ms. Reardon said. “This is why we’re here.”
She told The Catholic Free Press she retired because of sight and walking difficulties, and because she wanted to ensure that a good manager succeeded her.
She said she asked her volunteers if any of them would take over, and Ms. Kucharski agreed, if the pantry hours were cut from two days to one to prevent volunteers’ total burnout. The work of the 12 volunteers includes picking food up from Worcester County Food Bank and Shaw’s Supermarket, packing it in about 70 boxes and distributing it as people come to the church hall doors, Ms. Kucharski said. She said Rachel’s Table delivers bread and pastries to the pantry. (Rachel’s Table, a program of the Jewish Federation of Central Massachusetts, picks up food donations generated by restaurants, markets, bakeries, hotels, hospitals, caterers, and other food institutions and delivers them to agencies with feeding programs.)
Now the pantry and St. Anthony’s Closet – which gives out free clothes and other items – are open from 9:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. only on Thursdays.
Ms. Reardon plans to continue helping out at her parish in other ways.
“I anticipate that I’m going to get a whole lot more calls” for rental and fuel assistance, as winter comes, she said of requests coming to the parish, which she volunteers to monitor. She said money to respond comes from donations to the parish.
“I served parish funerals for 20 years,” as altar server, and lector when needed, Ms. Reardon said, explaining another of her ministries. “I’m still going to” lector.
She said she ran the parish thrift shop, which sold a variety of items, for 16 years, until it closed in 2007 when the parish was trying to sell the former convent where the thrift shop and the pantry were located. The pantry was moved to the rectory until the coronavirus pandemic came, then to the church hall.
“During COVID people would come up to the door” to pick up food, Ms. Reardon said. “We delivered to people who were quarantined or disabled.”
Feeding the hungry goes way back in the parish’s history, Ms. Reardon said. She said she and fellow parishioner Maryann Hannon got involved in 1979 when they were part of what was then the parish’s St. Vincent de Paul Society and delivered food to those who requested it.
She said they stopped deliveries in about 1985, when the parish became a partner agency with the Worcester County Food Bank and opened the food pantry, which they named for St. Anthony of Padua, patron of the poor.
In the early 1990s she became manager, a role she fulfilled until she retired last month.
“I could have volunteered for any food pantry, but not one that had Pat,” said Harvey Dennie, of Emmanuel Baptist Church, who has been helping her at the pantry for about three years. Some pantries make people feel “small,” he said, but Ms. Reardon told her volunteers, “We have to remember this is a church; this is God’s work.” Mr. Dennie added, “To see Pat work … makes us work hard, makes us treat people good.”
Sacred Heart parishioner Irene Planchiunas said when her husband was laid off and she was the only breadwinner “there were numerous occasions when I came home to boxes of food and gift cards to supermarkets.” She knew Ms. Reardon was responsible for that.
“We all love her a lot,” Mrs. Planchiunas said. “She is Sacred Heart.”
“Since our parishes merged, she’s been an example for me,” said Jean Dawson, from the former St. Catherine of Sweden Parish, who volunteers at the pantry. “I see her compassion for people in need. ... She treats everybody with respect.”
“Pat is a perfect Sister of Mercy Associate; she exemplifies the spirit of mercy,” said Sister Janet Ballentine, of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas. Ms. Reardon said she’s been an associate of the Sisters for 20 years.
Parishioner June Sulminski summed up the compliments by saying that Ms. Reardon reminds her of Mother Teresa.