Latest / Illinois Valley - Shaw Local / ‘Why don’t we start a food pantry?’: Peru woman helps feed the hungry in the Illinois Valley

Transcript

‘Why don’t we start a food pantry?’: Peru woman helps feed the hungry in the Illinois Valley · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Why don't we start a food pantry? Peru woman helps
• 0:08
  feed the hungary in the Illinois Valley. Written by Tom Collins.
• 0:13
  This article is being read by an automated voice brought
• 0:16
  to you by Everlett. Kathy Row took a vacation to
• 0:20
  San Francisco and was appalled by the poverty and homelessness.
• 0:24
  Seeing the lines of supplicants for food and shelter was
• 0:26
  gut wrenching. After returning home to Peru, she asked her
• 0:30
  then pastor, what could she do? The very Reverend Paul
• 0:34
  Carlson told Raw that if she wanted to feed the hungry,
• 0:37
  then there's no place like home to start. Carlson was
• 0:40
  the pastor at Saint Patrick Catholic Church in LaSalle, where
• 0:44
  Raw is an active member and people in need regularly
• 0:47
  knocked on the church's door seeking food donations, and he said,
• 0:51
  why don't we start a food pantry? Raw recalled, and
• 0:54
  that's how it actually got started. That was in twenty seventeen. Carlson,
• 1:00
  now pastor of the churches in Oglesby and Utica, said
• 1:03
  the project was started with the desire to not turn
• 1:06
  people away from the church door without something in their hands.
• 1:10
  Kathy's work is much more than distributing canned goods. Carlson
• 1:13
  said she takes care to gather food and home needs
• 1:17
  that people actually need when going through a rough time.
• 1:20
  She is careful with everything from the type of bag
• 1:23
  used to the seasonal spiritual reading that sometimes accompanies the bags.
• 1:29
  Initially it was a two person operation. Raw and her
• 1:32
  husband Mike appealed to parishioners for nonperishable food and then
• 1:36
  collected it once a month. They raised enough to fill
• 1:39
  about eight grocery bags to be given to the needy,
• 1:42
  but as words circulated, donations grew and so did the demand. Today,
• 1:47
  Raw and a small band of volunteers will hand out
• 1:50
  twenty bags or more a week. In some cases, there
• 1:52
  are itinerant homeless people, but sometimes fixed income seniors are
• 1:56
  grappling with soaring inflation. Some people worked their whole life
• 2:01
  and now they can't get enough food on the table
• 2:03
  because they just get social security. Rao said, we have
• 2:07
  a lot of people that are hungry that have a
• 2:08
  social Security check, and that's not making it nowadays at all.
• 2:14
  We just want to try and help people who need
• 2:16
  a little something extra. Rao is a native of Toledo, Ohio,
• 2:21
  who was transferred to Peru to temporarily manage the former
• 2:24
  Montgomery Ward store. Little did she know she'd one day
• 2:27
  return for good. Her next stop was in upstate New York,
• 2:30
  where she met and married Mike in nineteen eighty seven.
• 2:34
  Mike is a Depot native, and they settled permanently in
• 2:37
  the Illinois Valley in two thousand and nine. Her managerial
• 2:41
  skills came in handy as she built the food pantry
• 2:44
  up from nothing. She converted a large closet in the
• 2:47
  parish office into a storeroom for food donations and gradually
• 2:51
  drew volunteers who help with the sorting, bagging, and record keeping.
• 2:55
  Recipients are limited to one donation a month and must
• 2:58
  furnish a photo id. Nancy Matchewsky of Lasal went from
• 3:03
  donating food items to assisting Raw with the inventory and distribution.
• 3:08
  I thought it was wonderful, Massiewsky said, I just see
• 3:11
  such need when people come and the line is out
• 3:13
  the door. It's fulfilling, but yet it's sad at times.
• 3:17
  Raw and Saint Patrick's deliver just a fraction of the
• 3:20
  food provided by the regional food pantries and lack the
• 3:23
  refrigeration needed to store and distribute milk, meat, and frozen foods. Nevertheless,
• 3:29
  Row's operation helps fill in a gap in food access.
• 3:32
  Families occasionally run into a shortfall between the distribution days
• 3:36
  held by regional food pantries. A sack of non perishables
• 3:39
  from Saint Patricks can feed the needy for a critical
• 3:43
  week or so before the next regional food distribution. Ra's
• 3:47
  generosities inspired others in her faith community to give. The
• 3:51
  Lady's Sodality provides five dollars gift cards for the purchase
• 3:54
  of fresh meat or milk, and once a month donates
• 3:57
  blessing bags containing non food items such as shampoo and deodorant.
• 4:02
  Once a month, the Peoria Diocese sends a van with
• 4:05
  supplemental needs such as paper products including toilet paper and
• 4:08
  diapers for struggling families