Last in a summer series of articles looking at how diocesan parishes are reaching out to help their community
By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press
Homeless children.
Elders going to the senior center.
Grandparents raising grandchildren.
These are among the people in the community served by Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Milford.
In their work they learn the lesson of how the Church would respond with love to them if they were in need, said their pastor, Stigmatine Father Richard A. Scioli.
“It’s very real to them, because they can identify with the effects of generosity,” he said. “Whatever we do for the least, we do for (Christ). God gives us other blessings that we don’t expect … for doing the corporal works of mercy.”
“We started with making blessing bags” for people staying overnight in a shelter in Milford, said Kristen Ferreira, former president of the shelter’s board and coordinator of in-kind donations at Sacred Heart.
Since the shelter, which opened in 2019 and rotated among local churches, did not have the board of health’s permission to serve meals, she decided to give the people food to go. Blessing bags include high-protein snacks, bottled water, toiletries, socks, gloves, emergency blankets and hand warmers, she said.
She figured this would be a good project for Sacred Heart’s religious education students and Scouts, some of whom she worked with.
“A lot of the kids needed community service hours,” she explained.
She also requests help, and receives requests for help, from the wider community, she said. Sometimes it’s the police or fire department or the hospital seeking blessing bags for people with whom they’re working.
Donations are accepted and distributed year-round, and not just to the eight to 10 people who stay in the shelter.
About 70 children in the Milford Public School system are now listed as homeless, and the system requested underwear for them and their families, Mrs. Ferreira said. She put the request on Facebook and Instagram.
Donations for such requests and clothing for Sacred Heart’s coat program can be dropped in a temporary bin outside Sacred Heart’s parish center. Joseph Coplan, a local Boy Scout, is working on building a permanent collection bin as an Eagle Scout project.
Amy Donahue, a religious education coordinator at Sacred Heart, said she started a coat give-away, a project she’d done as a Girl Scout leader. But now she collects coats, hats, gloves and boots all year. Last winter the parish provided more than 1,000 coats and other winter clothing to those in need, she said.
Sacred Heart is also a collection site for the Daily Bread Food Pantry in town, founded and run by parishioners John and Cheryl DeAngelo, Ms. Donahue said. Donations are collected in baskets in the church.
Before the pandemic, Ms. Donahue had religious education students donate holiday items for the food pantry, such as candy-filled plastic eggs for “an Easter egg hunt in a bag.”
Children can take for granted that everyone will have an Easter egg hunt or get treats for Valentine’s Day, she said. Collecting these items for the pantry helps teach them to think “outside their own … lives.”
Another need was a morning meal. Ms. Donahue said there were no free breakfasts in town, so last December she and Mrs. Ferreira started a weekly “grab and go” breakfast on Wednesdays. Because of the pandemic, food, toiletries, books, DVDs and winter clothing are placed on tables in Sacred Heart’s parking lot. People request what they can use and it is handed to them.
About 10 people, usually the same ones, come each week, Ms. Donahue said. They’re not primarily homeless folks but parents and grandparents raising children, she said.
“Once we really started to get into COVID” there was much help for families, but not new programs for senior citizens, Ms. Donahue said. She figured there was a lot of “silent struggling.” Food prices rose, but seniors’ incomes didn’t. Some people lost work hours, or quit jobs to stay home with children learning remotely. Suddenly, folks weren’t living as comfortably as they had before.
“Getting a meal here and there” frees up money to pay bills, she reasoned.
“We wanted to help where we could,” she said. So last March Sacred Heart began distributing “grab and go” lunches monthly at the Milford Senior Center. The parish buys pizza, and ingredients for salad, which volunteers make, she said. Parishioners bake desserts and Gene’s Variety Store in Milford donates homemade soup. Volunteers pack 100 bags for distribution on the last Friday of the month.
“The seniors – they raised us,” Ms. Donahue said. “It’s nice to be able to give back to them.”
“I think it’s very fulfilling” to help; the people are very thankful, said Sacred Heart parishioner Elaine Capuzziello, after helping pack senior lunches recently.
“It feels good to help those who need it,” said fellow-parishioner Lisa Blackwell. “We’re always trying to find the best way to reach out to those in need.”
Before coming, you think, “I don’t want to do this; it’s going to take time out of my day,” said her 16-year-old son, Liam Blackwell, who was helping that day. But when you’re actually packing the bags, and definitely when you’re finished, “you just feel really good about yourself; you’re glad you did things for other people.”