Catholic Charities of San Antonio hosted a food, diaper, and face mask distribution event, Food From the Heart, at the St. Stephen’s CARE Center.
Thousands of families were served by 120 volunteers in partnership with seven non-profits and private corporations.
Families began lining up at 1:00 p.m. in the afternoon as staff and volunteers sorted and organized fresh produce, meat, milk, eggs, canned food, tortillas, diapers, and face masks. The last car was served at 9:43 p.m., after four hours of basic needs distribution.
Many of our visitors shared their stories and had wide ranging circumstances.
As visitors were being registered in line earlier in the afternoon, many of them had great concern that there would not be enough food.
Staff and volunteers reported a large quantity of visitors who work in the restaurant industry that were still without jobs even though their restaurants were operating at 25%. Additionally, businesses have managed to keep employees throughout the Stay Home proclamation, but many visitors were laid off as recent as this week and had new need for food.
The event served walk up clients without transportation and/or people who may have been homeless.
Catholic Charities of San Antonio was still serving visitors into the night hours with many families outside the 78207 zip code (second most impoverished zip code in the city) extending to about a 25-mile radius of the San Antonio city limit.
Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller, MSpS, blessed the food, the volunteers, and the visitors. Councilwoman Shirley Gonzalez (78207 Councilwoman) also served with volunteers distributing food to vehicles.
In addition to funding, food, diaper, and face mask donations, partners like Texas Diaper Bank, Nonprofit Financial Services, RK Cares, and Gonzaba Medical Group provided volunteers to help distribute basic needs.
Catholic Charities of San Antonio already has another event scheduled for Thursday, 5/21 5:30pm at St. Stephen’s CARE Center, 2127 S. Zarzamora St. Catholic Charities of San Antonio will continue to operate providing food and diapers Monday-Friday 8:30am-5:00pm at St. Stephen’s CARE Center, 2127 S. Zarzamora St. and 9:00am-12:00pm on Saturdays. Wraparound services like counseling, legal assistance, emergency financial services, and 40 other programs continue to be operational with drive-throughs, tele-services, and virtual assistance.
Read more about Catholic Charities of San Antonio on their website.
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