Northbridge parish 'makes lemonade'

Throughout the summer The Catholic Free Press will feature stories about how our parishes give back to the greater community, including their efforts to address ongoing food insecurity in Central Massachusetts.


By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press

As a pastor, you don’t always see your parishioners living what you’re preaching.
But Father Thomas G. Landry, pastor of St. Peter Parish in Northbridge, rejoices that he has that privilege when his people eagerly serve those in need of food – and more.
“This is something I actually get to see,” he told The Catholic Free Press. “I see the energy from the kids to the adults. I hear the excited chatter as they’re getting ready to deliver the ‘pay-it-forward meals’ and I hear the stories when they come back.
“It’s almost like you’ve taught the choir and now you get to sit back and hear them sing. It’s the music of our life of ministry … the conversation … the laughter. … I would love to capture that and turn it into church music. But that’s not what it’s meant to be.”
What Father Landry is talking about is the ways his parish helps feed people.
One is pay-it-forward meals, a way St. Peter’s has made lemonade out of lemons, you could say.
One of those bitter lemons was the coronavirus pandemic, which, last summer and this summer, led to the cancellation of the annual youth mission trips with Young Neighbors in Action and Just5Days, according to Christine Fung-A-Fat, St. Peter’s administrative assistant. The pandemic also meant the cancellation of the parish’s annual bazaar last November.
“We ended up doing our own little ‘mission trip’ on our property,” landscaping and painting at the church this June, Mrs. Fung-A-Fat said. (There’s one pitcher of lemonade!)
Another “pitcher” was that the “to-go” dinners (sit-down dinners before the pandemic), formerly used to raise money for the mission trips, weren’t cancelled. Instead, when parishioners bought food at the church to take home, the money helped make up for the bazaar, the parish’s biggest fundraiser. (Another pitcher of lemonade!) Mrs. Fung-A-Fat said the parish hopes to hold the bazaar this November.
The to-go dinners were available monthly last fall through this June, and the hope is to start sit-down dinners again this fall, she said.
Starting in February St. Peter’s added a new aspect to the dinners, Mrs. Fung-A-Fat said. In addition to purchasing their own meals, customers could “pay-it-forward” by buying meals for other folks too. Parish volunteers then delivered those extra dinners to area people they’d been told were in special need and to a local senior housing facility, she said. (Another pitcher of lemonade!)
“It started slow” with about 35 pay-it-forward dinners, “and then it just kept increasing,” she said. But by June 60-70 of the dinners were pay-it-forward ones, in addition to the 80 to 100 dinners people bought for themselves, she said. The hope is to continue the pay-it-forward dinners with the return of sit-down dinners this fall.
The dinners are planned and cooked by Peter Sabourin, a parishioner who is a chef, with help from fellow parishioners, she said.

PEACE OF BREAD

Mr. Sabourin is also a major player in another way St. Peter’s helps feed people: through Peace of Bread Community Kitchen at United Presbyterian Church of Whitinsville. Peace of Bread provides weekly meals (sit-down before the pandemic, now take-out only) and also non-perishable food, and, before the pandemic, clothing, Mrs. Fung-A-Fat said.
“The Presbyterian church is basically in charge of Peace of Bread” meals and the pantry, she said. Volunteers from other places, including St. Peter’s, St. Patrick Parish in Whitinsville, Good Shepherd Parish in Linwood and other churches, schools, businesses and community groups take turns preparing a meal for 120 to 130 people and serving it at the Presbyterian church. Mr. Sabourin is in charge of the kitchen there and helps other groups as needed, she said.
St. Peter’s was scheduled to serve a meal four times this year, the next one coming up on Sept. 8, she said.
The parish pays for the food, which Mr. Sabourin buys and fixes, with help from fellow parishioners, Mrs. Fung-A-Fat said.
“We usually try to do turkey dinners or ham dinners,” things diners might not be able to afford on their own, she said. Or Mr. Sabourin might have another idea.
About three weeks before it’s St. Peter’s turn to provide a meal, Mrs. Fung-A-Fat said, she puts out at church empty shopping bags with lists of suggested items. Parishioners take the bags and bring them back filled with non-perishable food and toiletry items, usually about 30 bags in all.
When St. Peter’s volunteers go to the Presbyterian church to cook and serve their meal, they take along these items for the pantry. The people coming to pick up a meal can get these items there.
“This is really the call of the Gospel taking legs and feet and arms,” Father Landry said. “You know you’re feeding more than a hungry stomach. There’s a relationship that’s being lived,” between volunteers and recipients and among volunteers. Though relationships are formed more easily at sit-down meals, they still happen with Peace of Bread take-out meals and home-delivered pay-it-forward meals, he said.
Once or twice a year St. Peter’s parishioners donate non-perishable food and toiletry items to the NAC Food Pantry, located at the town Senior Center and managed through the Northbridge Association of Churches, Mrs. Fung-A-Fat said.
People from St. Peter’s also donate food and other items for Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas, she said. The parish learns of needs from NAC, which learns about them from the public schools. St. Peter’s parishioners take tags with requested Christmas gifts for children and lists of suggested foods for Easter and Thanksgiving meals and bring the items to church, where the recipients pick them up.
For the food baskets “people can donate whatever they would like … throw in an extra dessert,” Mrs. Fung-A-Fat said. “Some families do put toiletry items in there, like laundry soap. … Somebody at Easter put in a lily. Toilet paper was popular this year. … And Lysol wipes and Lysol spray. … I thought that was very sweet.” (During the pandemic those items were in high demand and hard to find at stores.)
Some donors gave gift cards for local grocery stores in addition to or instead of food, which enabled the parish to give each of the approximately 18 receiving families $50 in gift cards for each holiday this year, Mrs. Fung-A-Fat said. This year parishioners gave more gift cards than in the past, she said.
“We have very, very good parishioners,” she said. “They’re very generous, especially with helping with the community.”