SOCIETY OF ST VINCENT DE PAUL DIOCESAN COUNCIL OF LAFAYETTE

Description

As the population grows, the number of underserved poor and needy in Hamilton County increases every year. Many of our clients are families who are the working poor that cannot afford to buy enough food to feed their families. Our desire is to keep these families from slipping into severe poverty. The root cause is complicated, but much of the need is due to under education and/or immigrants who cannot find a working wage to support a family. The mission of St. Vincent DePaul has been and continues to be to feed the hungry since the early 1800's in France, and continues today throughout the world. Without our help, some families would become a burden on the cities and county. During the Corona-19 Virus event, we closed our revenue producing thrift store, and closed the food pantry normal operations in late March. We are now serving our food pantry clients by a drive-thru in our parking lot two days a week, which has averaged 225 families per week since we closed normal operations. We need more funding due to the increased demand for food and lower revenue (much of our revenue comes from store sales and various churches who are not in operation) in order to continue our drive-thru operation. We anticipate opening the Thrift Store and normal Food Pantry operations as soon as it is safe for our clients and volunteers in accordance with Indiana Covid-19 guidelines, and when a sufficient number of our volunteers are available to return. It is a very enjoyable place to volunteer, and most volunteers return to volunteer many times.