-
January 22, 2021By Bill Doyle | CFP correspondent
Father John F. Madden, pastor of St. John Parish, figured it was time for Billy Riley to get some help running the St. John’s Food for the Poor soup kitchen and food pantry.
So, this month, Mr. Riley was promoted to director. Patrick Harrington took over as kitchen manager, while fellow volunteer Mike Paganelli became inventory manager. Mr. Riley had been doing both those jobs for the last seven-and-a-half years.
“I welcome both of them onto the team,” Mr. Riley said. “They both do a great job.”
Mr. Riley, 62, started managing the soup kitchen and food pantry in June of 2013. When he was home sick with the coronavirus last April, Mr. Paganelli was among those who helped keep things running.
As one of 16 children, growing up off Lincoln Street, Mr. Riley thinks his motivation to help others came from his family’s example.
“My mother and father always had food for us on the table every day,” he said, “and my mother would invite the neighborhood kids over too. There could be 16 Rileys in a line and then another 10 people because my mother was a good cook.”
Mr. Riley said he never met homeless people until he began volunteering at St. John’s Food for the Poor. The soup kitchen feeds the homeless, but also others who have a home, but can’t afford to feed themselves.
“After three years, I said to myself, ‘I need to be here all the time,’” he said. “These people need me, and they need all the volunteers here. I enjoy doing it.”
Mr. Riley has been around for so long, the people he feeds have learned to trust him and approach him with problems.
When the pandemic hit, the soup kitchen moved from inside the St. Francis Xavier Center, located on Temple Street next to St. John’s Church, to outside under a tent, to practice social distancing. Once the weather grew too cold, however, meals were served inside again, but people must wait in line outside until there’s room inside. The number of people eating inside at the same time went from 250-300 to 16-20, Mr. Riley said.
Father Madden said St. John’s is in the design and permitting stages of building a pavilion next to the center.
A year ago, 15-20 volunteers helped the soup kitchen feed more than 500 people for free each weekday morning.
“It was a revolving door for hunger,” Mr. Riley said.
During the pandemic, however, only five to six people volunteer each day and the number of people fed has plummeted to 150-200 per day, according to Mr. Riley.
St. John’s Food for the Poor remains relatively busy because it opens at 7 a.m. on weekdays, earlier than any other soup kitchen in the city. The food pantry is open 7-10 a.m. Monday-Friday and 8-10 a.m. on Saturdays.
“The support for it from the parish, from the community, from the city, from the diocese, it’s just been overwhelming,” Father Madden said. “That’s how it’s grown.”
Mr. Riley thanked Father Madden and Frank Carroll, Food for the Poor chairman of the board, for his promotion.
“They put more responsibility on me because they trust me,” Mr. Riley said. “I appreciate it.”
“It’s just been remarkable,” Father Madden said. “As Patrick said, ‘It started as a little convenience store and now we’ve turned into a supermarket.’ Billy has only himself to blame for the promotion because it’s been built up to such a thing that no longer is one person able to do the whole deal.”
Last week an anonymous donor gave St. John’s Food for the Poor a 17-foot, refrigerated box truck to help pick up and deliver far more food. The pantry previously used a small van and cargo van, neither of which was refrigerated. Volunteers Gary Erickson and John Dowd drive the box truck.
The pantry received so much fresh food from Stop & Shop, Rachel’s Table, the College of the Holy Cross, Clark University and others, that Mr. Riley began sending leftovers to other food pantries. Beneficiaries include St. Peter Church, Catholic Charities Worcester County, Friendly House and South Worcester Neighborhood Center.
Now with the refrigerated truck, he hopes to deliver to even more food pantries.
“A lot of these food banks, they don’t get stuff that I get,” Mr. Riley said. “I get unbelievable stuff that would feed a family every day.”
– Food pantries interested in receiving food from St. John’s Food for the Poor should call St. John Church at 508-756-7165 or Mr. Riley at 508-371-7329.
