Guests enjoy a homecooked meal April 9 at St. Germaine Parish in Prescott Valley. St. Germaine provides a free meal for those in need of food or fellowship twice each month through the Interfaith Outreach Meals program. (Courtesy of Roy Traver)
From left, Gerry Bricker, Norma Barraza, Amanda Vargas, Juanita Placentia and Letitia Ultreras set out coleslaw for an Interfaith Outreach Meals lunch April 9 at St. Germaine Parish in Prescott Valley. (Courtesy of Roy Traver)
Fifteen years ago, members of Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Prescott Valley asked the pastor of nearby St. Germaine Catholic Parish if they could use the parish’s industrial kitchen to serve a monthly hot lunch to the poor.
Soon, other area churches wanted to help and they eventually formed the Interfaith Outreach Meals program — each church covering a day or two each month to serve the community.
St. Germaine Parish added a second lunch day three years ago when Mary Dahl began coordinating the parish’s part. The lunch is not your typical “casserole and Jell-O” food, according to Dahl. About 10 parishioners, with the help of the Spanish-speaking community, prepare delicious and nutritious meals such as frittatas, grilled cheese and tomato soup or enchiladas for between 75 and 120 people in need.
Charity and Development Appeal (CDA)
The Charity and Development Appeal supports more than 70 educational, charitable and spiritual organizations which counsel, feed clothe, house, educate and comfort those in need throughout the four counties in the Diocese of Phoenix.
“The CDA is how we make the work of the hands of the Lord a reality for many people in the Northern Deanery,” said Fr. David Kelash, dean of the Northern Deanery and pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish in Cottonwood.
Fr. Kelash said that without CDA funding, his
parish wouldn’t be able to afford a parochial vicar to help when he is
busy attending to deanery responsibilities.
Board members of the Advice and Aid Pregnancy Center in Kingman pose for a photo Feb. 19. They are, from left to right, Charlene Duffy, Jan Mayr, Betty Myrick, Sandi Hann, Teresa Reaume, Don Lynch and John Mayr. (Courtesy of Advice and Aid Pregnancy Center)
In Kingman, Teresa Reaume started the Advice and Aid Pregnancy Center 20 years ago, after the doors on the last center had been closed for more than five years. She asked the pastor at St. Mary Parish for help with rent, and 10 people went through training to serve there.
“That was the beginning for us to be able to get a little place and start the ministry,” said the director.
Reaume said the center relies on funding from the CDA and other donations to buy diapers, formula and other general needs to run the center. So far, Reaume said the staff has helped 4,730 mothers in need since 1999.
“It has been an amazing journey to do this,” she
said of devoting her life to helping women in crisis. “We see God work
miracles here.”
The center also offers an “Earn While you Learn” program where women and men can learn about pre- and post-natal care and parenting skills while they earn baby items to stock their nursery. The center offers pregnancy tests and ultrasounds.
“That ultrasound is wonderful,” she said. “It is
the window to the womb and they get to see their baby. It changes their
hearts.”
Some of the Hope Pregnancy Resource Center staff pose for a photo. (courtesy photo)
Another crisis pregnancy center, this one in Flagstaff, counts on CDA funding to help keep the program open Christy DeSocio, director of the Hope Crisis Pregnancy Center, said that their location across from the NAU campus is perfectly situated to draw college students, clients from the Hopi and Navajo reservations and residents from the surrounding area.
“Whatever their needs are, we had a lot of resources to guide them through their pregnancies,” she said.
The center also offers pregnancy tests, ultrasounds and limited STI testing, as well as an “Earn While you Learn” program for parents. Clients are offered resources for adoption agencies and attorneys and supplied with food and clothing. There are three full time staff members — a director, nurse manager and a client services coordinator. Last year, Hope helped 311 clients, 63 of those were pregnancy tests.
Though the location is ideal, the building is
too small and “falling down and leaning to one side,” according to
DeSocio, which will require more funding. She said they also hope to
open their doors two extra days a week to serve more people in need in
the community, especially students.
“That is who we want to reach more of so we can
help them when they’re in an unplanned pregnancy situation,” she said,
“and so they know Planned Parenthood isn’t their only option when they
are in crisis with a pregnancy.”