CHARLOTTE — Thanks to the generosity of the St. Matthew Parish and School community, people in North Carolina, Haiti, Jamaica, India and Venezuela enjoyed meals not only for Thanksgiving but for weeks and months to come.
It all started this summer with the collection of donations for the parish’s annual Monsignor McSweeney World Hunger Drive. People rallied around the cause and raised $370,000 for neighbors in need – money that was distributed to local food banks, as well as enough funds to buy food and other essentials that filled seven large shipping containers sent to the Missionaries of the Poor in Haiti and Jamaica.
Monetary donations from the effort also went to a youth hostel in Satna, India, where St. Matthew’s parochial vicar Father Binoy Davis is from. Other financial contributions went to a charity in Venezuela and to the “Hands for Haiti” effort that benefits a school the parish sponsors.
The parish’s charitable efforts continued with two food drives for Thanksgiving that served people through Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte, the parish’s Mel’s Diner ministry, the Missionaries of the Poor in Monroe, Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish’s food pantry in Charlotte, and a local charity called Heart of Monroe.
St. Matthew Parish families collected non-perishable food donations to make 130 large Thanksgiving baskets that were delivered to Catholic Charities’ Charlotte office to distribute to their clients for the holiday. They also created 200 additional Thanksgiving baskets filled with holiday meal favorites and letters of well wishes for recipients of the other charities.
“We take the corporal works of mercy and charitable acts seriously at our parish,” said Antoinette Usher, St. Matthew’s facilities manager. “We see those in need as if they are Jesus in disguise. We take His words to heart: ‘Whatever you did for the least of these, you did for me.’”
St. Matthew’s Principal Kevin O’Herron commended his students for participating in this parish-wide initiative. “The school children were an integral part of the Thanksgiving basket collection,” he said.
— SueAnn Howell
