Local

‘Performing corporal works of mercy’

Maria-pia Negro | Catholic Herald

Some of the food donated to feed families struggling to make ends meet is stored in the shelves of Christ House in Alexandria, Catholic Charities main food ministry hub.

1394227566_32af.jpg

Dan Foos, a parishioner of Our Lady of Angels Church in Woodbridge, hands a 40-pound box of food to Ed Heaton, another volunteer with Christ House on Wheels.

1394227570_40aa.jpg

Scott Lawson, a parishioner of St. Lawrence Church in Alexandria, loads Christ House on Wheels food boxes into a trailer Feb. 28.

1394227573_637d.jpg

Dan Foos, a parishioner of Our lady of Angels Church in Woodbridge, stacks boxes of donated food in a trailer he borrowed from a friend. He will take the food to Front Royal to be delivered to rural counties in the diocese as part of Christ House on Wheel, a Catholic Charities program.

1394227576_fefe.jpg

Geovanny Heaton and Dwight Horkheimer, parishioners of St. Joseph Church in Alexandria, carry boxes of donated food out of Christ House’s storage in Alexandria Feb. 28.

1394227579_60d7.jpg

An older woman takes food from the Loaves and Fishes pantry in Front Royal, one of the depots for the Christ House on Wheels food delivery program.

1394227582_4e7f.jpg

Bernard Foos (left),7, and his sister Lisa, 17, bring boxes of nonperishables into Loaves and Fishes, a walk-in pantry in Front Royal.

1394227588_87d9.jpg

Walter Foos, 13, carries a box of donated food out of the trailer his family drives to pantries in the diocese as part of the Christ House on Wheels food delivery program.

1394227592_f43d.jpg

This graphic shows the reach of Christ House on Wheels, a Catholic Charities program delivering food to pantries in the outlying areas of the Arlington Diocese.

1394227604_4c33.jpg

At the end of February, Dan Foos and his family took a
weekday off to carry a hundred boxes of donated food from
Christ House’s basement in Alexandria to a borrowed trailer.
After loading the 40-pound boxes, the Fooses drove to a
pantry in Front Royal, where the boxes will be distributed to
pantries in the outlying areas of the Arlington Diocese.

The family is part of a network of volunteer drivers for
Christ House on Wheels, known as CHOW, a Catholic Charities
program that delivers nonperishable food to parishes and
rural pantries that are unable to meet their local needs.

Dan and his wife, Sarah, do this once a month to show their
nine children that “performing corporal works of mercy is
part of being Catholic.

“It’s not just going to church on Sunday or putting money in
the basket, you actually have to go and do things,” Dan Foos
said.

Among all the volunteer drivers, they deliver food to the
poor in the 21 counties that are part of the diocese.

Sherri Longhill, director of Catholic Charities Emergency
Assistance program and Christ House on Wheels, said the
program serves to quench an overwhelming need for assistance
in the diocese.

“We serve the disabled, senior citizens who are on fixed
incomes – actually our biggest number of participants comes
from senior citizens using the food pantries to help them
stretch their budgets, and single mothers,” Longhill said.
“Loaves and Fishes (pantry in Front Royal), for example,
feeds an average of 2,600 individuals a month – and they only
are open 10 hours a week.”

Usually CHOW boxes contain pasta, peanut butter, rice, beans
and vegetables. Each pantry distributes the food according to
the needs of its participants.

Longhill said the Gospel of Matthew guides this outreach
program as volunteers try to serve families and individuals
living in poverty and food insecurity, meaning that they
cannot make ends meet and are forced to go without food for
several meals. According to Catholic Charities, one in 10
individuals in the diocese is food insecure.

Volunteers at CHOW’s hub in Alexandria help by sorting food
donations on shelves and packing boxes to send them to other
depots like Catholic Charities Western Regional Office in
Leesburg and the Loaves and Fishes pantry. The pantries use
some of that food to restock their shelves, but most CHOW
boxes will travel further to rural pantries in places like
Rappahannock, Luray and Spotsylvania.

Dan and Sarah, who are parishioners of Our Lady of Angels
Church in Woodbridge, first became involved with CHOW four
years ago through a request at an event hosted by Arlington
Bishop Paul S. Loverde. Dan Foos recalled that the head of
Catholic Charities said they needed a 15-passenger van to
deliver food to where it was most needed.

“We had one. I could not give (the van) out but I could use
it,” he said. “We decided to volunteer as a family.”

The family’s delivery route usually includes Front Royal, but
they have taken food as far as Colonial Beach and
Fredericksburg. Usually members of the Knights of Columbus
take the donations from the depots to outlying churches and
pantries.

Though the Fooses mostly interact with other volunteers
during their deliveries, sometimes they talk to the people
who come to get food.

“I like to see how people are actually receiving the food
that we are bringing,” said Lisa Foos, 17. “We see that we
are actually helping people, we are not just moving boxes.”

According to Longhill, the program has delivered more than
100,000 pounds of food from September to December. “We expect
at least 250,000 by the end of the year,” she said.

Since its creation in 2007, the CHOW program has grown from
delivering food with one volunteer and a donated van to
hundreds of people helping to pack and transport food.

“I think people just don’t think that there is food
insecurity in our area, and once you let them know they
really reach out to help,” Longhill said. “Evangelization
occurs through volunteers, through action.”

Negro can be reached at [email protected] or on
Twitter @MNegroACH.

Related Articles