St. George's Food Pantry:

Serving Christ in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas

Your individual, church group, church school or parish-wide donations are very much welcomed! Thank you for your continued support!

Purpose:

1) To continue serving low-income families in our Hidalgo Country, Texas neighborhood who come to us asking for food, diapers, school supplies and other direct aid assistance. Hidalgo County is statistically the 2^nd poorest county in the entire USA and St. George’s is located only a few miles from the Texas/Mexico border along the Rio Grande.

2) To serve by our action and example as an Orthodox Christian witness and outreach in this borderlands region.

3) To provide opportunities for parishioners, local youth and adults, and visiting Orthodox youth volunteers to experience serving others through the St. George’s Food Pantry.

Inspiration:

History of the Food Pantry Program

From St. John of Kronstadt

(My Life in Christ: Part 1, Holy Trinity Monastery pg. 182):

"What infinite nothingness our food and drink represent on the one side,
and what infinite grandeur the man himself who is fed by them represents on
the other side! Is it not the greatest insanity for man, for this image of
God, for this partaker of the divine nature, for whom... 'God may be all in
all' (I Cor. 15:28)... to grudge food, drink, clothing, dwelling, and
anything else earthly, corruptible and transitory! Therefore, do not let us
be sparing of anything for our neighbour! O, what a great honour it is - to
feed, to clothe, to give rest to the image of God! Most-gracious and
Most-bountiful God; fill our hearts with mercy and bountifulness!"

See photos of St. George's Food Pantry at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8135007@N03/sets/72157603815362178/

 Fr. Antonio Perdomo arrived in the Rio Grande Valley to be the Pastor of St. George’s Church in January 2002. It soon became apparent that the need for food and other assistance was very great indeed, as testified by the frequent requests made by those from our local community, who came both to the Church and his home, hungry and requesting food for themselves and their families. Nearly everyday, someone knocked on the Church doors asking for food. When the Parish kitchen had nothing available, it was the Perdomo family's own pantry which was raided. Their Pantry was raided frequently to share with other, but the needs were far greater than could be accommodated in this manner. So, what was at first an informal effort to respond to the need to feed those who regularly came to the Church later became a formal program.

With the blessing and support of the Parish, the doors were opened to St. George’s Food Pantry in the summer of 2004. Since that time, the Food Pantry has quickly grown to serve over 100 families each time it is opened to serve. The local Parish donates staple foods and supplies, as do those in our community. Our Parish’s International Bake Sale included a “Give A Can; Get A Cookie” component to help collect canned food supplies. Local businesses and residential retirement communities have also volunteered to be collection sites for canned goods. We long to make this a Pan-Orthodox effort! St. George's is geographically isolated from other Orthodox Christian parishes. Even though we are the only Orthodox Church in the Rio Grande Valley, and we serve our Lord Jesus Christ here on behalf of all Orthodox Christians. We pray to become “Partners” with the Pan-Orthodox Christian Community—both Parishes, and individuals or families—found throughout the region and this North American continent.

Each time it opens, St. George’s Food Pantry serves over 100 families – including many women with children, elderly and handicapped. At Thanksgiving, we shared 108 turkeys, and still had to turn away several families. Funding food and administration costs for the ever-increasing numbers who come to us continues to be one of our greatest challenges.

From St. Basil the Great:
 
“The bread in your cupboard belongs to the hungry man; the coat hanging unused in your closet belongs to the man who needs it; the shoes rotting in your closet belong to the man who has no shoes; the money which you put in the bank belongs to the poor. You do wrong to everyone you could help, but fail to help.”

Whom does it serve? 

St. George’s Food Pantry will continue to provide for as many of those who come to us as we can possibly serve. Most participants are Spanish-speaking, recent immigrants to the USA, women with children and often multi-generational extended families to feed. Many of those served are elderly and/or handicapped and live on fixed incomes. Much of the population in our Church’s surrounding neighborhood live at or below the official national poverty level. Some have no other service options, because of immigration status challenges, and language barriers. Transportation difficulties and proximity of service also plays into our need to directly serve our neighbors. A number of participants must ride with others or ask family members, neighbors or friends to bring them to the Food Pantry, as they have no transportation. Generally, we open two Wednesdays per month. Due to schedule conflicts and out of country travel (to Mexico), during last January, the Food Pantry was only open once. The following report shares our official statistics for 2006 from January – October. November numbers and beyond will reflect the drastic increase in participants now served.