Poor find food and respect at
the Cathedral Kitchen and Food Pantry

By Mary Ann Wyand

What would Jesus eat?

That’s the slogan printed on aprons and baseball caps worn by Cathedral Kitchen and Food Pantry volunteers from many central Indiana parishes, who rise early each morning to prepare hot and healthy meals for homeless, unemployed or low-income people in need of free food in downtown Indianapolis.

Immaculate Heart of Mary parishioner Rick Sparks of Indianapolis, who has volunteered at the Cathedral Kitchen on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings for 11 years, took a break from preparing food on Nov. 16 to reflect on Christ’s call to help the poor.

“Jesus would provide for whatever is needed for the people involved, and that’s what we try to do here,” Sparks said. “Fortunately, we have a lot of good people that donate food and organizations like St. Vincent de Paul, Gleaners and Second Helpings that provide us with the opportunity to take care of his poor.”

Sparks said “it’s a lot of fun” to volunteer at the Cathedral Kitchen because “there’s lots of good people here”—both volunteers and clients—at the ministry located in the basement of the Damien Center at 14th and Pennsylvania streets.

Volunteers serve about 4,500 meals a month on weekday and Sunday mornings, and help an additional 780 to 800 families a month with food from the pantry’s government commodities program.

“Every Tuesday and Thursday, we give away food through the government program,” Sparks said. “All they have to do is identify themselves and sign up, and we’ll give them food to take home.”

In September, the Cathedral Kitchen and Food Pantry received the 2005 Hunger Relief Charity of the Year Award from Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana for excellent service to the poor since 1980.

Father Patrick Beidelman, pastor of SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral Parish, said he appreciates this recognition because “the poor and displaced are served every day in our neighborhood” by many caring volunteers who treat them with dignity and respect as well as generous donors who make this ministry possible with ongoing support.

“Robert”, a client who depends on the Cathedral Kitchen for food each morning, said after breakfast on Nov. 16 that he thinks the ministry should also offer spiritual support and career guidance along with meals.

“The food is much appreciated and much needed,” he said. “But in order to gain more energy out of this, we need to take the positives to the next level to find work. If God can guide us, we can do that.”

Robert said “ ‘program’ is a scary word, but we’re dispersed with the nutrition that we get from here, and if we have some form of career tools and guidance along with the food that would help a lot. With spiritual support, the crime rate would probably go down. Wouldn’t that be something?”

St. Alphonsus parishioner Gary Favrot of Zionsville, Ind., in the Lafayette Diocese, serves as the interim coordinator of the Cathedral Kitchen and starts each weekday by opening the kitchen at 6:20 a.m. so other volunteers can prepare a variety of nutritious foods for clients.

Favrot often attends Mass at 8 a.m. at the Blessed Sacrament Chapel next door at the cathedral before returning to the Cathedral Kitchen, and said prayer is an important part of the volunteer ministry.

“We have about 90 to 100 volunteers, and they change all the time, which is good,” Favrot said. “We always need more volunteers and food. There’s been such a demand on all the facilities we have here. Gleaners cut back a lot of what we have been able to get because of the hurricane relief efforts.”

Favrot said parish food collections throughout the year are a much-needed supplement to what the Cathedral Kitchen receives from area food banks and allocations of government commodities.

“It’s good to get a lot of parishes involved,” he said. “The volunteers bring in a lot of food from their parishes, and that helps too. St. Vincent de Paul also helps with some of the needs.”

Cathedral parishioner Lucia Corcoran of Indianapolis, who recently retired as coordinator of the Cathedral Kitchen and still helps with the ministry, said she believes that God provides for the poor through people who donate time, money and food.

“I think every volunteer is sent here by God,” Corcoran said. “There is just no other reason we would be here. After all, you don’t just sit down and say, ‘I think I’d love to wash dishes and unload trucks and work really hard on my day off or in my retirement years.’ Each of us—in our own way—has been sent to the Cathedral Kitchen.”

She said normal operating expenses are less than $1,000 per month, but only one-fourth of the budget is guaranteed.

The ministry “isn’t just about food,” she said. “It’s about the common spirituality of guests and volunteers. It’s about giving a hand up when people are down. It’s about helping students and suburbanites understand the real urban problems, not the supposed reasons for poverty and homelessness. The food is important, but it’s not the whole picture.”

Corcoran said “we’re very proud of our ‘graduates,’ ” former clients who find work and are able to provide for themselves.

She also praised volunteers from St. Thomas Aquinas Parish and many other parishes who have staffed the Cathedral Kitchen Brunch Program on Sunday mornings since 1983.

Corcoran also is grateful that students from Bishop Chatard, Cardinal Ritter and Father Thomas Scecina Memorial high schools as well as members of parish youth groups and collegians from Butler University, all in Indianapolis, help with the ministry by unloading trucks, coordinating food drives and painting walls.

She said food donations come from Gleaners, the St. Vincent de Paul Society, the Knights of Columbus, St. Malachy Parish in Brownsburg and St. Pius X Parish, St. Matthew Parish and St. Barnabas Parish, among others in Indianapolis.

Ecumenical and interfaith support comes from the St. Luke United Methodist Church singles group in Indianapolis, who has served the Thanksgiving dinner on site and delivered meals to people for seven years, as well as members of the Beth-El Zedeck Temple in Indianapolis, who have partnered with Cathedral parishioners for four years to provide the Christmas dinner.

During this holiday season, she said, “we’re asking for prayers for the Cathedral Kitchen and Food Pantry, for our guests that they may heal, for nutritious food because Gleaners is low, for paper goods because the cost is up

one-third and for money because our bank account is low.”

Our Lady of Mount Carmel parishioner Mark Niederberger of Carmel, Ind., in the Lafayette Diocese, was volunteering at the Cathedral Kitchen for the first time on Nov. 16 and kept busy serving hot soup to clients.

“This is my first time, but I intend to come every week that I can,” Nieder-berger said. “It’s eye-opening how many people are in need, but I’m glad that this soup kitchen is here to fill that need.”

(For more information about how to help the Cathedral Kitchen and Food Pantry, call Lucia Corcoran at 317-924-1242 or Cathedral Parish at 317-634-4519.) †