As part of the Philadelphia Archdiocese's annual Thanksgiving event, hundreds of faith-filled volunteers served Thanksgiving meals to families struggling to make ends meet.
Michael the Archangel Ministry Chaplain Oblate Father Steven Wetzel gathered with Philadelphia Police Department officers and supporters to distribute some 115 boxes containing turkey, vegetables, and dessert items for complete Thanksgiving dinners.
Father Wetzel said that the giveaways, which were held on November 22 and 23, helped households cover fundamental gaps in their budgets.
"People are still struggling. Look at gas prices, look at food prices. It's outrageous. So we're trying to help families, and single people make ends meet and have a better Thanksgiving," Father Wetzel mentioned, as quoted by the Catholic Philly.
Staff from St. Francis Inn, a hospitality outreach aimed at the city's marginalized population, said it expects to serve up Thanksgiving Day meals to 125 to 200 clients in the Kensington section of the city, even as property values soar in the neighborhood as it is rapidly gentrifying.
The report also stated that an annual food collection sponsored by St. Cornelius Church in Chadds Ford, organized by parishioner Jean Burke, produced 50-holiday dinners for Mercy Neighborhood Ministries in Philadelphia's Tioga-Nicetown neighborhood.
The parish initiative is now in its 10th year and actually grew out of a 45-year family tradition that Burke and her husband, Tom, instilled in their own children as young parents.
Food Insecurity in Philadelphia
During the pandemic's terrible economic times, food insecurity grew substantially for homes with children. The inability of a family to buy enough healthy food over the course of a year is referred to as food insecurity.
As a result, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the overall U.S. food insecurity rate of 10.5 percent, or 13.8 million households, stayed the same between 2019 and 2020 for those living in Black and Hispanic families.
Scholars and observers said that there is still a long way to go in ensuring equal treatment for all Americans, especially for children and people of color, despite the unchanged 2019-20 figures indicating that federal and charitable programs help those in need during the pandemic worked to some degree.
According to the report released by the Economic Research Service of the USDA, which was based on a national survey, 7.6 percent of households with children, or roughly three million people, were food insecure in 2020, compared to 6.5 percent in 2019.
The report also revealed an increase in the number of families with children who were living in households with very low food security.
Members of such households, which are drowning in severe poverty, have reported altered eating patterns and skipping meals. Even while parents are known to skip meals in order to allow their children to eat, families with very low food security may find themselves in a situation where even their children are not getting all of their meals.
About St. Cornelius Church
As stated on its Facebook page, St. Cornelius Catholic Church, located in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, is a community dedicated to proclaiming Jesus Christ through the Word, the Sacraments, and charitable acts of service.
