Seven Christian churches work together at Oxford food shelf

By Bill Doyle | CFP Correspondent

At the Oxford Ecumenical Food Shelf, volunteers from seven Christian churches work together to help feed those in need.

Catholics from St. Roch Parish volunteer alongside members of the First Baptist, the Oxford United Methodist, First Congregational, Oak Hill Bible, Good Shepherd Episcopal and Zion Lutheran churches. Two members of each of the seven churches serve on the ecumenical council and establish policy for the free food shelf. Everyone associated with the food shelf is a volunteer and there are more than 100 of them. Susan Avery, vice chair of the Oxford Ecumenical Food Shelf Council, estimated that 25-30 of the volunteers attend her parish of St. Roch.

About 25-30 people volunteer while the food shelf is open from 4:30-6:30 p.m. each Thursday, except on holidays, in the basement of the Oxford Community Center at 4 Maple Road.

Chris St. Martin has volunteered for 12 years, including the past three as chair of the Oxford Ecumenical Food Shelf Council.

“It’s Christian,” she said. “It’s what you do. You help people. We’re all doing Christ’s work. We’re all Christian, just different philosophies or different structures or whatever. We’ve got fantastic volunteers.”

Before the pandemic, the churches took turns volunteering for a month at the food shelf. Now, volunteers from the various churches work together.

“Everybody loves it,” Mrs. St. Martin said. “They get to know new people, they get to have conversations with other people about, ‘So what do you believe?’ or ‘How do you do it at your church?’ It’s great. That’s the whole idea of ecumenical. You’re not really ecumenical if only one church is showing up. So I love that.”

Miss Avery has volunteered at the food shelf for nearly 10 years and has served as vice chair of the council for three. She and Deborah Guskey represent St. Roch on the council. Miss Avery lives in Dudley and was a parishioner at St. Ann Parish before moving on to St. Roch when the two parishes merged on Sept. 1.

Miss Avery said she’s learned that the volunteers from various faiths are “all the same. We’re all Christian and we have the same beliefs. We’re all there to help, giving, kind and respectful. It’s just a pleasure working with everybody.”

Some volunteers used to be clients of the food shelf. Some volunteers are clients.
“They want to help and I think that’s a wonderful thing,” Mrs. St. Martin said.

There are volunteers of all ages. Some are Oxford High School students fulfilling service requirements and some of them stay on afterward.

The volunteers restock the shelves each Tuesday morning and prepare the produce each Thursday morning. Mrs. St. Martin said the volunteers start each day with a prayer.

“We thank God for bringing us all here,” she said. “We thank God for letting us be his hands and his heart, and we talk about treating people with respect. For a lot of clients, this is the hardest thing they’ve ever done, finding themselves in this position and being here. So we talk about how we want everybody to be patient and welcoming and smiling.”

The volunteers grow to know the clients and their families.

“It’s more than just giving them food,” Miss Avery said. “We spend time with the clients as we walk through the store. Some are quiet, some may not say a whole lot while we’re shopping, but others welcome the chance to talk to somebody who is friendly, understanding and respectful.”

“For the most part, the clients are very appreciative,” Mrs. St. Martin said. “They’re always saying, ‘Thank you,’ ‘We thank God for you,’ ‘Bless you.’ I would say they’re very appreciative.”

Miss Avery pointed out that some clients, especially those visiting for the first time, feel ashamed or don’t believe they belong shopping at no cost at the food shelf.

“They’ll say, ‘I worked my whole life, I never thought I would find myself here,’” Miss Avery said.

Overwhelming medical experiences don’t leave enough money for food for some food shelf clients.

“It comes down to do you pay for the prescription or do you pay for food?” Miss Avery said.
Money is tight for some clients because their children move back in with them or they’re caring for their grandchildren.

Mrs. St. Martin does her best to tell people in need to come to the food shelf.

“I tell them to just come once,” she said, “because I know if I can get them here once, they’ll come back.”

Mrs. St. Martin belongs to the First Congregational Church adjacent to the food shelf. First Congregational has a garden to grow produce for the food shelf.

“My big push since I took over is healthy food,” Mrs. St. Martin said. “Trying not to just give people things like macaroni and cheese and potato chips and all that kinds of stuff.”

Signs on the shelves detail how healthy the foods are. A green apple sign is for the healthiest foods, meaning low sugar, salt and fat.

The food shelf hands out recipes to teach clients how to cook certain dishes, especially with the dried and canned beans received from the Worcester County Food Bank.

“That’s such healthy food,” Mrs. St. Martin said, “and people would just go by it because they’ve never had it, they’ve never cooked it, they don’t know what to do with it.”

The food shelf has produce, meat, fish and frozen vegetables and frozen fruit. Paper goods, personal care items and even pet food are also available.

Clients push grocery carts through the aisles and pick out what they want while accompanied by a volunteer.

Prior to the pandemic, the food shelf handed out turkeys to 160-175 families for Thanksgiving and Christmas, but it now distributes Market Basket gift cards for turkeys. The churches provide the food shelf with bags filled with mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing and cranberry sauce. At Christmas, the families receive turkeys, side dishes and gift cards for presents.
The food shelf distributes more than just food. Members of the seven churches have donated backpacks, school supplies, hats, mittens and socks.

The Knights of Columbus Council in Oxford provides the food shelf with Coats for Kids to be distributed.

The food shelf distributes food to 60-75 families leading up to Thanksgiving and Christmas, according to Mrs. St. Martin. During the summer, that number drops to about 35-40 families. Clients range from individual seniors to families of up to eight members.

The council also plans the Crop Walk, a 5K walk for hunger in which 30 people took part and which raised more than $2,000 for the food shelf in October.

The food shelf receives produce from the Worcester County Food Bank and for the last two years Mrs. Martin has purchased $250 more of produce at Market Basket each Wednesday with funds donated by local individuals and businesses, including IPG Photonics Corporation in Oxford.

For several weeks last summer, Overlook Farm in Rutland also donated produce.

Mrs. St. Martin said the food shelf receives less food from the Worcester County Food Bank than in the past because grocery stores don’t donate as much as they once did. So the food shelf has to purchase more food and the cost of food has risen.

Miss Avery has secured about $15,000 in grants, including a new one of $1,000 this month from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development.

The food shelf is open to anyone who lives in Oxford, N. Oxford or Rochdale. First-time clients are asked to bring a utility bill that includes their address to prove they live in the town. Call 508-987-1062 for more information.