ST. LOUIS, June 28, 2011 — Families suffering from hunger across the country will go to bed a little less hungry in the next several months because of 12 tractor trailers of soup mixes delivered through the National Council of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul (SVdP).
Provided by an anonymous donor, the shipment translates into almost 3 million individual servings of soup and are being delivered to SVdP food pantries, dining halls and warehouses throughout the United States.
"Our food pantries continue to report a very high demand, so this donation will help us fill at least some of that need," said Roger Playwin, SVdP's national executive director.
One of the shipments is going to SVdP's warehouse in Escanaba, Mich., which provides aid to some 75,000 people in need and those living in poverty in the state's Upper Peninsula.
"Families have been struggling here because of the area's double-digit unemployment for the past several years, so we are especially thankful for this donation," said Peggy Bryson, president of the SVdP Conference at St. Barbara's Catholic Church in Vulcan, Mich. A Conference is a group of volunteers who come together to grow spiritually and offer person-to-person service to those in need.
The St. Barbara Conference partners with the SVdP's Conference at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Norway, Mich., in operating the all-volunteer Norway-Vulcan Food Pantry. Some 700 volunteers in total serve the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in the Upper Peninsula.
SVdP's Council in St. Louis, Mo. is coordinating distribution of the soup with Operation Food Search, which provides food and other necessities to more than 130,000 people each month in eastern Missouri and southern Illinois through a network of more than 250 agencies. The soup will be used in two child-focused nutrition programs run by the organization. One of those programs is "Operation Backpack," which provides more than 3,000 low-income children a weekly backpack filled with food to ensure that they have meals during the weekend.
"About half of those we serve are children, "said Sunny Schaeffer, executive director of Operation Food Search. "The meals in the backpacks not only alleviate the children's hunger, but they also ease the strain on their parents, who are concerned about having enough money to provide necessities for their families. That's why we're very grateful to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul for its willingness to provide for those in need."
One of the oldest and most effective charitable organizations in the world, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul (http://www.svdpusa.org) is a Catholic lay organization of more than 690,000 men and women throughout the world who voluntarily join together to grow spiritually and offer person-to-person service to the needy and people living in poverty in 142 countries on five continents. With the U.S. headquarters in St. Louis, Mo., membership in the United States totals more than 146,000 in 4,600 communities. Programs include home visits, housing assistance, disaster relief, job training and placement, food pantries, dining halls, clothing, transportation and utility costs, care for the elderly and medicine. Providing more than $593 million in tangible and in-kind services, SVdP serves more than 14 million people in need each year, performs more than 644,000 visits to people in their homes, and delivers more than 7 million service hours to those in need.
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