Catholic Charities, Latter-day Saints partner to distribute a truckload of goods
By Dan McWilliams
Catholic Charities of East Tennessee and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints partnered last month to bring a 33,000-pound truckload of donated food to help the needy in the Diocese of Knoxville.
Representatives of parish ministries and other CCETN partner organizations arrived at a warehouse in Mascot in northeast Knox County on the morning of Sept. 17 to await the 18-wheeler bearing 24 pallets of food and other goods that traveled from Utah.
The Latter-day Saints’ JustServe community-service platform, as part of the nation’s 250th-anniversary celebration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, sent 250 truckloads of food to help communities in all 50 states.
The tractor-trailer delivering to East Tennessee dropped off 40,000 pounds of food, which is enough for 33,000 meals, or enough to feed 1,400 people for a week, according to Laura Cannon, an assistant communications director for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
CCETN executive director Deacon David Duhamel, left, is with Daniel Lee Tobler, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints state president. (Photo Dan McWilliams)
Deacon David Duhamel, executive director of CCETN, spoke to those gathered in the warehouse before they unloaded the food about the importance of their mission. Catholic Charities also distributed food from the truck through its ministries, and Deacon Duhamel said CCETN is “very fortunate” to have the JustServe partnership.
“We’ve been gifted by the Church of Latter-day Saints a tractor trailer full of food,” the deacon said. “And our goal today is to receive the 24 pallets coming off the truck and then disperse them to not just our ministries or programs at Catholic Charities but also share this gift with some of our community partners. Today we have a group out of Claiborne County called REC (Regional Education Center Ministries food bank). They’re an evangelical Christian organization that runs a food ministry in Tazewell. We found out about them from a deacon, Chad Shields, who’s at Christ the King (Parish) there in Tazewell.
“We also have the Knights of Columbus from St. John Neumann (in Farragut), the Knights of Columbus from St. Mary’s in Johnson City, and then Catholic Charities.”
Deacon Duhamel serves at St. Mary Parish in Oak Ridge and had some fellow parishioners and Knights with him at the warehouse.
“Those are my buddies,” he said. “Larry (Carignan) and Rick (Sample) are two of my stalwart volunteers and they’re helping distribute food as well.”
The number of people the donated food will help is in the triple digits.
“We’re hoping we’ll probably go out and help hundreds of people here in East Tennessee,” Deacon Duhamel said.
Daniel Lee Tobler, state president for the Latter-day Saints, was also at the warehouse and said the JustServe ministry “really is” a huge effort.
“Today is a wonderful opportunity for us to collaborate with Catholic Charities and help five food banks here in our area,” Mr. Tobler said.
The Deseret Transportation truck carried mainly food but also had a pallet of dish detergent, with the load having “just basic essentials to help people to have their basic needs met,” Mr. Tobler noted.
“Two hundred-fifty of these trucks have been delivered or are in process of being delivered throughout the nation to many facilities,” he added. “We’re honored to be here and to link arms and collaborate with this wonderful effort.”
Rob Girardi, who is Grand Knight of Council 8781 at St. John Neumann, said he believed his men would be unloading “somewhere around 6,000 pounds” of food from the truck into a trailer and other vehicles they brought to the warehouse.
“I think we’re supposed to take about one-sixth of it. We can’t fit everything in this trailer. We’ve got some vans and pickup trucks,” Mr. Girardi said.
Volunteers collect boxes of food in a warehouse in Mascot. (Photo Dan McWilliams)
The St. John Neumann Knights deliver food every week to the Newcomb-Jellico area in Campbell County near the Kentucky state line and assist many other needy families closer to home.
“Last year, we delivered 199,000 pounds of food to the general Knoxville area and Jellico,” Mr. Girardi said.
The Grand Knight said four members of Council 8781 and from other councils assisted with the unloading of food at the warehouse.
Helping those dealing with food insecurity is “a big part of what we do,” Mr. Girardi said, adding that the Knights of Columbus council also delivers food to Catholic Charities’ Samaritan Place, which is a residential shelter for seniors who are homeless or experiencing housing instability.
Peter Szrama and Lucy Simmons of St. Mary in Johnson City came to the warehouse to pick up the food their parish food pantry will distribute.
“We were told that about 6,000 pounds of food would go to our pantry,” Mr. Szrama said.
St. Mary received “more than dozens” of boxes of food at the warehouse.
The Johnson City parish has two food distributions per month
“I believe the number is somewhere around 300 families we help,” Mr. Szrama said. “Then every week we also have organizations that come like a women’s shelter, a men’s shelter, a women’s halfway house. They come and we distribute food to them.”
“Plus, during the week, the (parish) office distributes food,” Ms. Simmons said. “We have bags made up for the office when people come in desperate need, and they’re ready and sent out. It’s hard really to keep track of the exact numbers, but it’s a lot and it seems to have increased.”
The JustServe truck is “a huge blessing” for the parish food pantry, Ms. Simmons said.
Mr. Szrama pointed out that he and Ms. Simmons have no official title with the Tri-Cities food-pantry ministry other than “helpers doing something good for the community.”