‘Feeding Our Neighbors’ Gears Up to Distribute 1 Million Meals

Annual Campaign Set Jan. 25-Feb.1

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As temperatures dipped outdoors, the fourth annual Catholic Charities’ “Feeding Our Neighbors” campaign kicked off Jan. 11 aiming to bring 1 million meals to hungry New Yorkers.
After celebrating 10:15 a.m. Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan, Cardinal Dolan joined participating agencies embarking on the food drive, which officially runs from Jan. 25 to Feb. 1.
Donations from a 40-foot Goya Foods truck were unloaded onto Catholic Charities’ Mobile Food Pantry, which was parked outside the cathedral. The sidewalk outside the cathedral’s main doors on Fifth Avenue between 50th and 51st Streets served as the staging area.
From there, the cargo will be delivered to food pantries, soup kitchens and meal programs that serve New Yorkers in need—Catholic and non-Catholic alike. Goya has made a commitment to donate more than 300,000 pounds of food, facilitated by the participation of 26 ShopRite stores in the Hudson Valley region.
Goya’s donation was announced by its president Bob Unanue just before Thanksgiving (CNY, Nov. 27).
Cardinal Dolan, in speaking with CNY outside the cathedral, said, “What is better than feeding your neighbor? This is not only a nice idea but a sacred responsibility.
“When you’re talking about 300,000 thousand kids alone that are going hungry in the Greater New York area, we need more.”
Among those assisting the interfaith drive were representatives of archdiocesan Catholic Charities, including Msgr. Kevin Sullivan, executive director; Eric S. Goldstein, CEO of the United Jewish Appeal (UJA) Federation of New York; Jennifer Jones Austin, CEO and executive director of the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies; Goya Foods and ShopRite.
The food will be distributed by the three faith-based groups to stock the shelves of numerous pantries and soup kitchens in the five boroughs.
Participants include all archdiocesan Catholic schools, local parishes, the Catholic Youth Organization (CYO), the archdiocesan Office of Religious Education and the Catholic Charities Federation.
Feeding Our Neighbors: An Interfaith Response began in 2012 with a joint mission—to collect food and raise funds to replenish food pantries and soup kitchens that feed the hungry during a most critical time of the year, when need is reportedly high and giving is low.
Msgr. Sullivan underscored those goals during the cathedral Mass. “We are here to raise awareness and make a dent in hunger and, through the partnerships that we’ve established, we will make the world a better place.”
In addition to collecting food, the intent of the campaign is to initiate studies about the root cause of hunger, according to Msgr. Sullivan.
According to statistics provided by Catholic Charities, nearly 325,000 children in the archdiocese go hungry. The estimated percentage of Americans living under poverty guidelines is 14 percent; however, in New York City, that figure is 19 percent.
Information: http://catholiccharitiesny.org/make-a-donation/feeding-our-neighbors.