America's Largest Catholic Newspaper
The cans stacked on tables set up at Our Lady of Sorrows parish on Manhattan’s Lower East Side held an impressive array of Goya Foods, everything from black beans to chick peas and rice to tins of Vienna Sausage. But they represented only a down payment on the 300,000 pounds of food the company donated to the Feeding Our Neighbors program operated by archdiocesan Catholic Charities.
The major portion of the contribution will assist the agency’s network of food pantries and emergency food programs in the archdiocese. Goya also plans to deliver a third of the total—100,000 pounds—to Catholic Charities agencies across the United States, which are providing services to unaccompanied minors arriving from Central America.
“Giving back has been kind of in our DNA,” said Bob Unanue, president of Goya Foods, at an afternoon press conference announcing the contribution Nov. 17.
Unanue spoke with confidence and conviction about the partnership his company was forging.
“We’ve always believed that the Catholic Church is a way to be able to deliver these foods because they will go to their intended destinations,” explained Unanue, who heads the largest Hispanic-owned food company in the United States.
“It’s great to be a part of it,” he said of the Feeding Our Neighbors campaign.
Among the other diocesan Catholic Charities agencies to receive a share of the donation are: Brooklyn and Rockville Centre; Galveston-Houston, San Antonio, Dallas and Fort Worth, all in Texas; Washington, D.C.; Arlington, Va.; and Southern Arizona.
A slice of the donation will remain right at Our Lady of Sorrows, where the Capuchin friars who run the parish operate a food pantry that serves from 100 to 150 people on Monday and Wednesday mornings, Father Tom Faiola, O.F.M. Cap., the pastor, told CNY. As the event ended, workers could be seen stacking larger food packages for the local pantry.
Msgr. Kevin Sullivan, executive director of Catholic Charities, explained in an interview that Goya had first made a smaller donation to last year’s Feeding Our Neighbors program, scheduled to run from Jan. 25 to Feb. 1, 2015.
“It’s an invaluable partnership that shows what Catholic Charities is doing in so many areas of the country to welcome these minors,” he said.
Employees from New York Catholic Charities agencies that assist the minors from other countries who have come to the United States also were on hand to lend a hand with the food packaging.
Cardinal Dolan, speaking about the assistance that Catholic Charities would be able to offer thanks to the partnership with Goya Foods, said, “What we’re doing right now, this is America at its best. This is the Church at its best.”
As the cardinal spoke he faced a bank of television cameras, some undoubtedly present because of the day’s news that Pope Francis had confirmed a papal visit to Philadelphia for the World Meeting of Families next September.
“As Pope Francis tells us over and over, every human life is sacred,” the cardinal said, “Everybody is created in God’s image and likeness. When we treat them well, when we welcome them, feed them, educate them, care for them, we do it for the Lord.”
