St. Vincent de Paul Northern Kentucky food pantry and parish conferences feed body and spirit

Bella Young

Multimedia Correspondent

For more than 100 years the Northern Kentucky Council of St. Vincent de Paul has been spreading hope in the northern most counties of Kentucky; Kenton, Campbell, Boone, Carroll, Grant and Pendelton. The Northern Kentucky Council acts as the head of 29 parish conferences, among whom resources are spread to help as many people as possible. One such parish is St. Barbara Parish, Erlanger.

Tim Scherrer, president of the St. Barbara Conference, says about the aid they are able to provide, “We gave out almost $30,000 dollars in food last year. When we look at our total economic impact on our geographic area, it is almost $130,000 of impact.”

St. Vincent de Paul provides not only food to those in need, but also financial aid. “That is primarily rent and utilities, we bought water heaters, we buy bus tokens, we do all kind of things,” said Mr. Scherrer.

“When we get a call, we reach out to that individual, try to make contact with them, figure out what they need, and we try to set up a home visit. We prefer actually getting into the house and being able to sit there and talk to someone face to face. That is kind of the gold standard of our mission, to get face to face with people,” said Mr. Scherrer.

When the volunteers, who are often referred to as Vincentians, make home visits to assess the need for aid they never come empty handed, bringing with them groceries.

“Some people will call in and ask for help with a bill, but we ask them ‘Can we bring you food?’ That’s $100-$120 in groceries that now you can spend on your gas or childcare, or whatever you may need,” said Mr. Scherrer.

Even when people max out the amount of financial aid they can be given in a year, Mr. Scherrer says that they can always be given groceries.

People who find themselves in need of aid, whether financial or help with groceries, are often embarrassed to reach out. Mr. Scherrer says that taking food to them helps relieve some of the embarrassment that might come from walking into a traditional pantry.

The Northern Kentucky Council of St. Vincent de Paul does operate traditional pantries that are open and available to the public. They are known as a choice pantry.

As Becca Gerding, programs director with St. Vincent de Paul of Northern Kentucky, explained, “The guests that we serve can actually come through and shop with a volunteer to pick items their family needs and will eat. It caters to dietary restrictions, or even picky eaters. They get to pick the brands and flavors out of what is available to them.”

Ms. Gerding says that often, this choice can empower the family. Backing up the sentiment of Mr. Scherrer, Ms. Gerding recognizes that when a family is need of aid it can be embarrassing and lead to feeling like things are out of their control. The choice pantries, located in Falmouth, Cold Spring and Erlanger, seek to give some control back to the families.

“We couldn’t do it without the wonderful community support,” said Ms. Gerding, “We couldn’t meet the need we are seeing without community support and our community rallying behind us, and the wonderful group of people helping with St. Vincent.”

The emphasis of community drives home the goal of the Campaign of Mercy, which is to increase the number of people who participate in the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. Without the community upholding the St. Barbara Parish Food Pantry and the pantries of St. Vincent de Paul of Northern Kentucky, their mission would not be possible.

For information on St. Vincent de Paul Northern Kentucky and other ministries that help serve the needs of local families, visit www.covdio.org/mercy.