Bishop joins in packing Thanksgiving baskets

By Joanna Gardner

The storage room of Heritage Dairy Store’s regional headquarters in Thorofare and the cafeteria of Gloucester Catholic High School in Gloucester City were the scenes of two well-orchestrated food box assembly operations recently. Holding cardboard boxes, volunteers moved up and down tables full of various kinds of non-perishable foods grabbing one of each item, a can of corn here, a jar of pasta sauce there.

At the first location, the busy workers were members of the St. Vincent de Paul Society at Church of the Incarnation in Mantua. At the second, they were Gloucester Catholic High School’s Student Council. But both work teams had one volunteer in common: Bishop Dennis Sullivan.

“Feeding the hungry is one of our great responsibilities as Catholics,” Bishop Sullivan said. “I wanted to participate to support the people, to tell them what they’re doing is God’s work. We should be proud of this. It goes on in parishes and schools all over the diocese.”

The St. Vincent de Paul Society packed 60 boxes of food on the evening of Friday, Nov. 21 with the bishop, who donned an apron and packed the Thanksgiving packages alongside parishioners. A separate group of volunteers worked on the Christmas toy drive tags for the parish’s giving trees. They would make 500 tags before the end of the night, each with a child or senior’s wish for a toy.

On Saturday morning the group finished the food boxes with turkeys and other perishable foods and delivered them personally to family’s homes.

Maria Schaffer is the president of the St. Vincent de Paul Society for the parish and Human Resources director for Heritage Dairy Stores. The company has been supportive of the society and they’ve used the space at regional headquarters to pack the food boxes for six years.

“‘Poor’ is somebody that had a great job and lost it and now they’re struggling,” Schaffer said. “It’s fulfilling to be able to help get them over that hump, and to see that some of those clients we helped were able to get back on their feet.”

The society organizes Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter food drives and a Christmas toy drive for the parish, and offers utilities assistance on a needs basis throughout the year.

“We don’t realize how many people in our own neighborhoods go to bed hungry,” said Father Raymond Gormley, pastor of the Church of the Incarnation. “The goodness of our parish helps to alleviate some of that hunger, and the idea is that physical nourishment might help them spiritually in their lives, whatever religion they are.”

Gloucester Catholic High School has held Thanksgiving food drives for over 50 years. On the morning of Monday, Nov. 24, their 21-member student council, with the bishop’s help, packed 65 boxes of canned goods that had been donated by students and purchased by student council members.

Each class was responsible for one type of canned food item. Students could also opt to donate money.

In total, the school raised over $2,000, which was used to purchase canned goods and grocery store gift cards included in the boxes for families to buy perishable items. There was enough left over for the student council to make a donation to local food pantries.

Students delivered the boxes to seven local parishes to be distributed to parishioners in need.

“I’ve seen the poverty here that goes unnoticed,” said senior student council president Tim O’Shea. “It’s good that we’re able to do this because we bring the food right into our community and spread the blessing that we’ve been given.”

“We see this as part of forming our kids in their baptismal commitment, and an experience for them to be Christ for others. At the heart of everything we do is formation,” said Principal Ed Beckett. “The kids are very supportive of one another. Whatever endeavor they take on they’re guaranteed support from their peers.”

After the food packing, the bishop was invited to a breakfast prepared by the school’s senior culinary arts class. Students served baked French toast and frittata on china plates and chatted with the bishop over breakfast.

Bishop Sullivan blessed the school’s newly-acquired statue of Our Lady of Perpetual Help and before leaving, announced that the students would have the Monday after Thanksgiving as a holiday.

“I leave here very impressed with what I saw. What a wonderful charity that the students, staff and everyone here has been involved in,” he said over the school’s announcement system. “It’s a tradition that when a bishop visits he can declare a day off.”

As he left down one of the school’s hallways, he received a standing ovation from a senior English class that chanted “Bishop, Bishop” as he passed.