Families and food pantries express gratitude for donations made to the ‘Appeal for Families’

Bishop Michael Mulvey’s 2021-2022 “Appeal for Families” has helped about 70 families, 16 food pantries and five Catholic Charities offices in the Diocese of Corpus Christi since it was launched between March and April last year.

Bishop Mulvey asked pastors, priests and deans to help discern the needs of God’s people. “I want to communicate my heartfelt desire to assist families, particularly the youth and elderly family members, who have suffered extraordinary hardships this past year,” he said to the clergy.

Some $600,000 was raised for the first distribution, and another $200,000 was raised between August and December. Most of the second distribution went to parish and Catholic Charities food pantries.

“We sent the money to the parishes, and the parishes had to cut the checks to the families,” said John Godlewski, who had been Director of Stewardship at the time. “We did it that way because we wanted the families to recognize that their parish family was distributing the money to them, as appose to the money coming directly from the chancery.”

“I think it made more sense, and it meant more to people coming directly from the parish, but that also caused extra work for the parishes, and it got pretty cumbersome. When the second distribution went out to the food pantries, it still accomplished the goal,” Godlewski said.

Beginning in August of 2021, seventeen parishes were able to contribute directly to families in need during the first distribution. Parishioner Lois M. Duelberg from Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in Refugio wrote, “Dear Bishop Mulvey … I was on the committee that disbursed the $5,000 checks sent for our three churches [Our Lady of Guadalupe, St. Anthony of Padua and St. Dennis]. My team handed out 10 of the 19 checks. People were so grateful!” One father of three girls was getting chemotherapy treatments for stomach cancer. She wrote that the two uncles helping the family were in tears accepting their check. 

“In another family, a mother raises her child and her brother’s two children. She needs the money for clothing and food. Another mother who accepted a check was crying. She hadn’t known how she would pay her electric bill for January.”

In Kingsville, a family of five from St. Joseph said their lives were changed when their beloved father had a stroke. They wrote, “Dear Bishop Mulvey… We weathered the storm with our faith, knowing God will provide for us. Sacrifices were made, and our way of life was never going to be the same… What you have bestowed to our family will help us so much. We feel the love and concern you have for our family. May God bless everyone, and may many graces from the Lord be bestowed upon them all [Bishop Mulvey, Rev. Paul Paulson, all the congregation of St. Joseph and all the members of the Diocese of Corpus Christi].

“The second distribution of funds was then made in December because additional funds came in between August and the end of the year,” Godlewski said. “Most of the funds were distributed to food pantries throughout the diocese.” The amounts ranged from $15,000 to $35,000.

The Austwell-Tivoli Food Pantry wrote, “Thank you, thank you, thank you! Days before receiving your generous donation, we were told the local church in Tivoli, who had been giving a monthly donation for years, would no longer make this donation. This was the only monthly donation, and with the pandemic, fundraising is not an easy option. Now with covid and flu season, the students are home due to outbreaks and school closures; families need more. The pantry has supplied food boxes to over 200 families —on a normal month, we average 77-114 families.”

Another recipient, St. Vincent De Paul from Sacred Heart Conference President Patrick Ebarb, wrote, “Please accept my heartfelt and profound thanks for the recent and unprecedented financial grant of $35,000. It was most unexpected but most welcome and a boost to our morale in this period after joyful Christmas celebrations and at the beginning of the new year. However, it was much more than that.” 

“This gift from the diocese means that we will be able to more than double our annual allocations in rental and utility subsidies to those who come to us for this critical assistance. Many of our brothers and sisters in need are on limited, fixed incomes from minimum wage jobs or Social Security payments while the costs of rent, utilities and other necessities continue to rise inexorably,” Ebarb wrote. “At our most recent meeting on Jan. 10, members voted unanimously not to spend one cent of this grant on fixed expenses but to focus entirely on meeting the needs mentioned above.”

Sister Elizabeth Smith from the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, founder and board member of Kingsville’s Weavers of Love wrote, “Words cannot express my sincere gratitude for blessing the Weavers of Love with $14,000! This gift will bless many of our elderly and sick individuals.” Weavers of Love in Kingsville is a non-profit soup and sandwich kitchen to help people in need of a healthy nutritional meal.