Hearts & Hands: Feeding the body, nourishing the soul

Lorie Villarreal and Ada Sanchez have made it a life's misson to feed the hungry. They get plenty of help from their parish family at Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

According to a 2015 survey, Corpus Christi has approximately 3,000 homeless people. This estimate, significant as it is, does not include those who are homebound, forgotten, lonely and hungry.
 
Two parishioners at Our Lady of Perpetual Help have formed a ministry they call "Hearts & Hands" to try to address this need in the community. The idea of Hearts & Hands came to Ada Sanchez and Lorie Villarreal while attending one of the Dynamic Catholic Alive programs held at OLPH. The elements of being a Dynamic Catholic include prayer, generosity, study and evangelization.
 
Last year, with the help of the Divine Mercy and Community Outreach ministries, Sanchez and Villarreal held put together a Thanksgiving feast in the parish. Due to the success of this event, Hearts & Hands was born.
 
Hearts & Hands is a group of people that help prepare and deliver meals to men, women and children in the community, not only on Thanksgiving but also throughout the year. The Hearts & Hands ministry's mission is simply to feed the less fortunate. They want to nourish the body and spirit of God’s people.
 
With last year’s generous response and donations from the parish family, not only did Hearts & Hands feed about 400 people at the first Thanksgiving Feast, but enough food and supplies were available to feed 250 people in May and 250 people in August. 
 
Their goal now is to reach as many people as they can, as often as they can.
 
This year—following the words of Scripture, “The generous will be blessed, for they share their food with the poor (Prv 22:9)"—Hearts & Hands of OLPH will host its Second Annual Thanksgiving Feast on Thursday, Nov. 24, beginning at 1 p.m. in the parish hall.