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Portsmouth Abbey, in its monks, oblates, and extended school community, is engaged in service to the community in a variety of ways. These efforts, commanded by Christ in his central commandment to love God and neighbor, are outlined in Benedict's Rule, Chapter Four, which provides an extensive catalogue of good works. This monthly column explores different ways in which the Abbey is responding to this vocation.
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Meeting Local Food Needs
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The COVID-19 pandemic has created the difficult juxtaposition of greatly increased need for various services, while simultaneously making it much more difficult for agencies and their volunteers to help to provide those services. We see the need for personal contact – in elderly visitation, in tutoring young students, in delivering services to people’s homes. And in the face of the greater challenges with health, with education, with economic hardship, vulnerable populations encounter a reduction of assistance and personal contact. Locally, this has happened with such a basic need as obtaining adequate food. Prior to the restrictions imposed in the health crisis, food insecurity in Rhode Island, as across the nation, was a clear and present problem.
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St. Baranabas Church responded early to the emergent crisis
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The Rhode Island Food Bank notes that, in 2019, over 12 percent of Rhode Islanders, more than 54,000 households, were “food insecure,” with more severe needs being experienced by 5.6 percent of Rhode Island residents. Through its 168 member agencies, the Food Bank reports that it was distributing food assistance to over 53,000 Rhode Islanders each month, noting that many of the recipients were seniors and/or children. Food relief has long been part of the Abbey’s community outreach. The monastery maintains its food basket at the front of the church, substituting for a weekly collection at Mass. The School has maintained an annual “Lenten Fast,” translating the reduced consumption into a donation to the St. Vincent de Paul pantry at St. Barnabas Church. Students have also periodically organized food drives, and designated dress down day collections for food relief. There is still much to be done.
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The economic destructiveness of the COVID pandemic manifested itself quite early locally in increased food needs. Agencies across Aquidneck Island encountered this, and local communities responded. The Martin Luther King Center in Newport, which already had been active in providing daily food assistance through its food pantry and hot meal program, partnered with Newport and Middletown to address these needs. The Center developed a mobile food pantry, adding times and venues for distribution. In Portsmouth, the Saint Vincent de Paul Food Pantry at Saint Barnabas parish responded to help address this crisis, expanding its food availability thanks to increased donations. Soon, these services were joined to a satellite agency of the RI Food Bank operated by the Masonic Lodge in Portsmouth, part of a statewide effort by the masons to address the emergent need. To facilitate and consolidate these efforts, the St. Barnabas pantry has temporarily suspended its service to eliminate confusion and provide more consistency of service for those now in need. The Portsmouth Food Bank is presently open two days a week, Wednesday and Friday from 10am-2pm. Mr. Ken Garthee, director of the St. Barnabas pantry, has indicated that while they are prepared to resume their service, they will continue to defer to the consolidated food bank.
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MLK Center Mobile Food pantry
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St. John's Masonic Lodge, site of Portsmouth Food Bank
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Garthee is impressed by the Masons’ willingness to take on this critical service, emphasizing that volunteer support and donations remain critical: “Your students need to know that there is a great need out there, and should consider what they can do to help.” The Newport Daily News reported in mid-August that while the relocation of the emergency food bank to the Lodge has gone smoothly, the demand of food continues to increase. Marcella Bauer, coordinator of the Portsmouth Food Bank, noted that they had “seen a significant increase in the number of families,” pointing to its distribution of nearly 150 bags in the previous week, having served over 350 people. Our stock is starting to dwindle.”
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In nearby Bristol, our own Katie Blais remains active in assisting with food relief agencies. Katie notes that the East Bay Food Pantry, as well as Hope and Main, “have really upped their food program since COVID began.” EBFP delivers meals to seniors and others who cannot make it to the pantry, and has created an outdoor food pickup program in their parking lot. They have also developed a kids program for families struggling since the spring with the closure of schools. Hope and Main launched its “Nourish Our Neighbors” program, designed “to ensure that local food insecure families and other vulnerable individuals can access wholesome, prepared meals at a time when nutritious food is critical to maintain good health.” (see website). Hope and Main operates a number of additional food relief programs, funded in part by the Rhode Island Foundation, though they will need additional funds to sustain and expand these programs to continue to meet needs. Katie also will be working with the food pantry and Roger Williams, to engage students in delivery of food locally.
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"Nourish Our Neighbors" delivery
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A favorite agency of our students has been My Brother’s Keeper, featured in earlier articles in "The Current." and partnering with Dr. Marc Lavallee’s Form VI Christian Doctrine course. MBK has made a remarkable “pivot” from primarily furniture delivery to the distribution of food. Its direct, into the home model of furniture delivery has not been tenable during the pandemic, nor has the close volunteer work needed to load and transport items. This has not deterred MBK, however, from listening to the needs of its clients, and responding. A significant part of the agency’s work is to serve the South Coast region, where Abbey students have assisted the Dartmouth center of the Easton-based agency. Maintaining its core mission of delivering “the love and hope of Jesus Christ,” the agency responded to COVID-19 crisis by meeting what soon became a most critical need. MBK’s President Erich Miller writes: “For public health reasons, we couldn’t continue providing furniture assistance so we adapted and put all our efforts into emergency food deliveries. Under the circumstances, it’s how we could do the most good. Our pivot to our Food Assistance Program was phenomenally successful: we increased the number of food deliveries by 377% while simultaneously increasing the total value of food delivered by 515%.” As early as June, MBK had already made over 6,000 food deliveries, serving over 20,000 people.
With the academic year now beginning, new opportunities for marshalling volunteer resources to help meet these needs also emerge. Hopefully the Abbey community will continue to find ways to join these efforts in addressing this most basic and critical need.
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