Across the archdiocese, people help feed the hungry

“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me …” – Gospel of Matthew 25:35

Students help the poor abroad

Students at Howells Community Catholic School in Howells prayed, played and helped feed the hungry during a recent field trip to Immaculata Monastery and Mercy Meals in Norfolk.

The students, in kindergarten through sixth grade, began the day with Mass at the monastery. They listened to a vocation talk by Missionary Benedictine Sister Sarah Elizabeth McMahon, played bingo with the Missionary Benedictine Sisters and prayed for vocations.

After lunch, the students went to Mercy Meals, where they watched a video on the malnutrition that occurs in many countries. Then they put on aprons and hair nets, divided into groups and packed 36 bags of food for families in need across the world.

Each bag of food the children packed provides nutritious food for six and can be prepared with just boiling water.

In an hour’s time, the students sharpened their measuring skills and learned teamwork, said Laurie Schlautman, who teaches first and second grades at Howells Community Catholic.

The field trip “was a great spiritual experience and afternoon of service,” Schlautman said.

Parish joins effort to serve community meals

St. Columbkille Parish in Papillion hosted a community meal on Nov. 25, as part of a countywide effort to help people in need of food assistance.

The meal was coordinated through a Lift Up Sarpy program called Serving Sarpy, which unites churches, organizations and businesses to serve a community meal every night through Dec. 31. It began as an effort to help people who rely on government food aid through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and whose aid was threatened during the federal government shutdown.

St. Columbkille prepared a feast of chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes, desserts and drinks for up to 500 people and invited in people regardless of need.

Catholic Charities makes Thanksgiving dinners possible

Hundreds of people will enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner, thanks to Catholic Charities of Omaha and its volunteers and donors, including parishioners at St. Charles Borromeo Parish in Gretna, St. Columbkille Parish in Papillion and St. Robert Bellarmine and St. Stephen the Martyr parishes in Omaha.

Catholic Charities staff and volunteers gave away Thanksgiving dinner kits to scores of people at two Omaha locations on Nov. 25-26.

The organization has been giving Thanksgiving dinner kits to people in need for 20 years. A line of cars wrapped around the block at Catholic Charities’ Saint Juan Diego Community Center on Nov. 25. Employees and volunteers awaited the motorists, loading the vehicles with turkeys, vegetables, eggs, butter and more.

On Nov. 26, Catholic Charities distributed more dinner kits at its Saint Teresa of Calcutta Campus near 93rd and Maple streets.