St. Philip Food Drive Update
An excerpt from the St. Philip parish bulletin:
As Catholic Christians, we know to trust in God and He will provide for our needs. Even though we have faith, it can be a scary proposition at times. When a former St. Philip School and current Bishop Canevin student approached us about holding a food drive, we were cautiously optimistic about the response that we would get, but the doubts still lingered. Since it was the first time that we held an event like this, we had no idea what to expect, especially in light of the fact that so many are struggling financially due to the pandemic. Would all the planning and preparation be for naught?
St. Philip food drive
Our Lord once again proved why we should always trust in Him and do so without doubt! The food drive that was held on August 15th and 16th to benefit our food pantry was an incredible success! Not only did the community come through with extremely generous donations, but we also had plenty of volunteers both at our drive-thru event and at the Masses to collect and process the donations.
We collected approximately 365 bags of donations over the course of the weekend. Approximately 100 vehicles dropped off donations at our drive-thru event. The donations that we collected were checked for expiration dates (following guidelines from the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank), sorted by type, and boxed for use in our pantry. We also collected monetary donations not only over the weekend of the food drive, but also through the Pittsburgh Foundation’s Critical Needs Alert one-day fundraiser that was held on August 19th. In total, we received $6,092 in donations, and expect to receive approximately $1,446 in matching funds from the Pittsburgh Foundation, for a grand total of $7,538! With the discounted prices at which we are able to purchase food from the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, these monetary donations will go a long way toward supporting our friends in need!
Collecting food at St. Philip
We cannot begin to thank everyone involved enough. We would like to express our heartfelt thanks to anyone who donated, prayed for the success of the event, or took time out of their busy schedules to collect and process donations. We would like to give special thanks to the young man who is the reason this event happened, and the Vincentians who helped to organize with him. He saw a need, stepped up, took action, and his hard work yielded a truly bountiful harvest. Please know that whatever your involvement, you played a big part in helping the 71 families that we deliver food to each month, as well as anyone else who reaches out to us in need of food. The event was such a success that we hope to make it an annual event!
If you would like to volunteer or become a Vincentian, we are looking for those individuals that would like to help others in their time of need.