Hunger Fund’s Generous Donors Enable Global and Local Reach

By Cecily Jones

The late Jane Corbett, friend of Loretto in St. Louis and a Mary Rhodes awardee, began her 2015 request to the Loretto Hunger Fund by writing “in the name of the poor in St. Louis and in Haiti.” That phrase summarizes the dual purpose of this fund. Since its creation at the 1974 Assembly, the Hunger Fund has sent assistance to 32 foreign countries and to 123 groups in the United States; many of these were annual grants. This article reports on the 2015 distribution and suggests ways to increase this vital Loretto outreach.

Money went to an orphanage in Haiti; to a center serving deportees at the Mexican border; to a community center near that border; to a Pakistani priest for the children of his parish; to the family of an immigrant who had sought sanctuary in a Denver church; and to a nutrition project in Nicaragua, sponsored by Louisville’s St. William Parish. In addition, the Allocation Committee found it possible to send $5,000 to the U.N. High Commissioner on Refugees to help with the desperate needs of those fleeing violence and entering Europe.

Three longtime grantees in inner-city St. Louis — Sts. Peter and Paul Parish, St. Vincent de Paul Parish, Hosea House — received funds. So did the St. Louis Catholic Worker House. The breakfast outreach program of a Baptist community, a food pantry in the West end and a Franciscan shelter, all in Louisville, were fund recipients.

Jemez Springs Helping Hands and the Jemez Presbyterian Church, both concerned with the needy in the nearby area in New Mexico, received money. Funds also were allotted to Judy Popp’s work with the poor of Marion County, Ky., and to the Caring Place, a shelter for abused women in Lebanon, Ky.

Isidore’s Harvest, a program of the Ploughshares Center in Buffalo, Ky., gives its farm yield and poultry to a neighboring Presbyterian food pantry; this effort was aided by the Hunger Fund. A grant will assist CrossRoads Ministry in Louisville in its work of forming connections between high school/college students and folks living at the margins; the money will help fund a culminating event for the marginalized and the youth.

None of these allocations would be possible without the generosity of Loretto members, Loretto students and Loretto friends because the Hunger Fund, once called the “sacrifice fund” by Francis Jane O’Toole, its earliest promoter, consists totally of donations. Reported here are three current examples.

For several autumns now, Anthony Mary Sartorius has sponsored a mammoth yard (actually conference room) sale at the Motherhouse, with half the proceeds given to the Hunger Fund and half divided among other charities. The fund’s take from the past November’s sale was $2,200!

At the St. Louis Center, where all the local Loretto members were invited to gather for Holy Thursday, contribution containers graced the tables at the special Community dinner.

The most colorful gifts to the fund came from Denver’s St. Mary’s Academy where high school potters crafted hundreds of ceramic bowls which students and faculty then purchased at an April 15 lunch, for which the students furnished 28 crockpots of food, plus breads and desserts. From this artistic culinary event came checks for $3,500!

Regina Drey, St. Mary’s director of Loretto projects, reflected that the high school has raised money for the fund since 1996, for many years through a Run for Hunger. More recently, this switched to a field day highlight: a “dunk tank” where students tossed balls that if correctly aimed could drop a teacher or even the principal into a tank of water. Now the “empty bowls” project and the “dunk tank” alternate as the annual effort. Academy faculty also contribute to the Hunger Fund at the annual Christmas party.

Contributions to the Hunger Fund may be sent to Valerie Novak, 590 E. Lockwood Ave., St. Louis, MO 63119.