St. Vincent de Paul Society, Marshall O Whitecotton Conference

Your Marshall O. Whitecotton Conference of the St. Vincent de Paul Society here at St. Joseph has just completed another highly successful food drive thanks to your incredible generosity.  This food will help us insure that no one in our area who calls for our help will go hungry. 
Our pantry is on site at St. Joseph (Thanks to you, its overflowing) and we have teams assigned to serve clients each week.  We operate a “hot line”, so when a call for help comes in or someone stops by the church needing help, two team members spring into action, taking bags of food as needed supplemented by Walmart cards to purchase perishables.  We go to the client’s home, bringing Christ’s love and support while our two person team analyzes the needs of the family and counsels and prays with them. 
What you may not know is that our scope goes way beyond food.  We help pay rent, phone, utility and other bills for our clients.  We help guide them to other agencies when their needs go beyond our abilities. 
Our work is 100% dependent on donations, and your loving, generous, blessed gifts have enabled us to provide this vital service to our community.  We cannot say THANK YOU enough. 
We ask for your continuing prayers and financial support so that we may continue to do what Jesus has called all of us to do----feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and shelter the homeless.  We fully expect the need to be even greater in the coming months, given all of today’s economic uncertainty.
Once again, THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts for making this ministry possible.

Dear Friends,
Do you ever wonder what happens to the foods and finances that you so generously donate to the St Vincent de Paul Society, Marshall O Whitecotton Conference, of St. Joseph Church? The members of the Society who have the privilege of distributing those things can’t share specifics with you because of confidentiality issues, but we can share a few general things.
 
When someone in need calls the hotline, or is referred to us, we make an appointment to visit with them in their home to determine how we might be of help to them. Many times, it is obvious from the initial contact that some food from the pantry would be welcome and so a few bags are filled with things that they might need. We are able to help with bills on a limited basis, sometimes in conjunction with grant programs offered by utility companies through Catholic Charities of Fort Worth.
 
That is a brief picture of what we do, and of how your generosity fits into it. But, we are talking about real people with real needs, the faces we see when we visit, the streets they live on, the schools their children attend. When we drive past those streets, we remember the people we have visited, and pray that they have benefited from our help.
 
The economy is the reason for the financial distress of many people. But many of those we visit were able to provide for themselves before an illness struck, or grandchildren had to be provided for unexpectedly. It is very difficult for many people to accept help from others in those kinds of circumstances. We covet your prayers that as we go, bearing resources that you have given, we may do so with sensitivity and in the name of Jesus who calls us to love our neighbors as ourselves.
 
If you would like to join us in the work of helping to distribute the resources you have entrusted us with, and to make your drives around town full of memories of the people you have visited, please call the Hotline Number found in the church bulletin, 682-429-8231, leave a message and we will contact you.
 
Sincerely,
The members of SVDP