Over the years, Father Peter Daly often told his parishioners, “When you retire, you can have a second vocation.”
When the priest was serving as pastor of St. John Vianney Parish in Prince Frederick, Maryland, he wanted the parish to start a food pantry to serve those in need in Calvert County, and he knew a retiree there who could lead the effort – Larry Donnelly, who had a 35-year career of managing food service for students at the University of Maryland.
“Calvert is a wealthy county, but there are hidden pockets of poverty… I said, ‘Larry, you know the food business. God wants you to do this,” said Father Daly, who is now retired himself.
Donnelly, a Vietnam veteran and Boston native who worked in dining halls during his 10 years in the Army before his career with the University of Maryland’s Dining Services, was running the snack bar for basketball and volleyball games at St. John Vianney’s Family Life Center and also its first Sunday breakfasts.
When the St. John Vianney Inter-Faith Food Pantry began giving out food from a small building near the church in November 2011, Donnelly was at the helm guiding a team of volunteers, many who were also retired. Over the years, they have also been assisted by students, by many fellow parishioners, by members of nearby Catholic and other churches and by people not connected to a church.
Donnelly has drawn on his Catholic faith, his logistical expertise at managing food service, and his personal charm (which friends describe as a “gift of gab”) in leading the outreach. “He’s a dynamo,” Father Daly said of the pantry’s director, who turned 82 in September.
When the pantry began, volunteers had to hand collected food through a basement window and, once the food was sorted, lug it up narrow stairs. In 2019, thanks to the generosity of parishioners and donors, a grant from the state of Maryland and the support of local businesses and organizations, the St. John Vianney Inter-Faith Food Pantry opened a state-of-the-art facility featuring a loading dock, a forklift to bring palettes of collected food onto high shelves along a back wall, a walk-in freezer and refrigerator, and a warehouse-like setting where volunteers can sort food for clients, all on one floor.
At Maryland’s flagship university, a special highlight of Donnelly’s career was feeding the football team when Coach Ralph “The Fridge” Friedgen led the Terrapins, and the appreciative coach presented him with ACC championship and Peach Bowl rings.
Now as the food pantry marks its 10th anniversary this fall, Donnelly’s team of volunteers includes a group of retirees who formerly worked in a variety of professions – a meteorologist, a physician, a school bus driver, a mechanic for Metro, a nurse, a math teacher, a nuclear power plant worker, a Xerox service technician and federal government workers who served in the IRS., the U.S. Mint, the Department of Labor, and in the office of the Architect of the U.S. Capitol. They are also joined by student volunteers from the parish and nearby schools.
For many of the food pantry volunteers, their service is a work of faith. What unites all of them is a desire to help their neighbors, and along the way, they’ve formed lasting friendships with their fellow volunteers, joining them at Mass and other parish activities and for regular meals, golf matches and bowling.
Over the past decade, the volunteers at the St. John Vianney Inter-Faith Food Pantry have faithfully continued serving those in need, and during the pandemic, the outreach adopted strict safety protocols and didn’t miss a day of its operation, continuing the work of collecting, sorting and distributing food on Wednesday afternoons from 3 to 6 p.m. and on the second Saturdays of the month from March through October.
In 2020, the food pantry served 13,019 people, including 5,280 families, and it distributed 191,841 pounds of food. The pantry also offered special food distributions on Thanksgiving and Christmas, serving nearly 900 people.
“We let people know we’re here for everybody,” said Donnelly, noting the pantry’s title includes “inter-faith.” Calvert County’s public transportation bus stops at the pantry during hours when it is serving food.
Donnelly, who once made sure the hulking Maryland football players were well-fed and now leads his own squad of spirited food pantry volunteers, said, “I have a great crew here!” The pantry has about 135 volunteers, with around 20 helping on days when food is distributed.
In mid-summer 2021, the Catholic Standard spent a day at the food pantry, and following are sketches of volunteers interviewed that day, along with insights from the pastors who have led St. John Vianney Parish since the pantry began its outreach.
‘You’re helping your neighbors’
In 2012, Ed Williams, a St. John Vianney parishioner, retired after a 32-year career with the office of the Architect of the Capitol, where he worked as a general supervisor for shops that dealt with painting, plastering and scaffolding.
“When I retired, Larry was waiting for me. He saw me in church and asked, ‘You retired now?’” Williams remembered, laughing. “I knew where he was going. I was looking for something to take up my time.”
Williams began working in the food pantry’s small building, picking up cases of food and handing it through a basement window there and later helping to carry it up the stairs after it was sorted. “That’s quite a job,” he said. “…I told my wife, ‘I’m not sure about this.’”
Reflecting on how deliveries are now made to a loading dock in the food pantry’s new facility and brought in on a forklift, he said, “It saves our backs!”
At the food pantry, volunteers “all do a variety of things. I help with bagging all the food. I help a lot with distribution, getting the food from the building to people in cars,” said Williams, who noted they use carts and nickname themselves “Uber” cart drivers as they push the food out to the cars. Depending on the size of their families or households, people get different-sized boxes and bags of food containing fresh fruit and vegetables, bread and baked dessert items, frozen meat, and canned or packaged goods.
Through the years, Williams has made good friends at the pantry. “We’re called to do things to help people. It just makes me feel good to do that,” he said.
Joking about how tight-knit the food pantry volunteers are, Williams said, “We’ve all got gravesites together. We’re all neighbors!”
Debbie Holt, a member of another Calvert County parish, Jesus the Divine Word in Huntingtown, began volunteering at the food pantry after retiring from her job at the U.S. Mint. She was joined by her son Brian, then a high school student.
“It was great for both of us,” she said, adding that Brian, now a senior studying computer engineering at the University of Maryland, continues to help out there when he can. “It helped shape him in the right way.”
Volunteering at the food pantry “is such rewarding work, because the people here all care about each other,” she said. “We care about our clients deeply.”
Holt said the clients are “everyday people, like you and I,” and added that during the pandemic, they served people with family members who had lost their jobs and had never needed that help before, including some people who had volunteered at the food pantry.
“There came a time they needed that help, and they were able to receive it from the food bank,” she said. “During COVID, we heard a lot of those stories, people who had brought food to the pantry found themselves needing it… One lady cried. She pulled up and said, ‘I never thought I’d be in this situation.’”
During the pandemic, the pantry’s volunteers wore masks and gloves and developed a system where clients pulled up, were registered and received the food outside. A maintenance team sanitized the building twice a week.
Holt, who has helped pack food at the pantry and also has applied for grants for the outreach, said giving people the boost they need “makes you grateful for what you have and compassionate for people going through difficult times.”
She noted the St. John Vianney food pantry “is really like a family. A lot of the people we serve live in this community. It gives you a warm feeling. You’re helping your neighbors.”
That point was echoed by Buddy Kramer, a Prince Frederick resident who has helped at the food pantry for the past eight years. Kramer, 75, is a retired mechanic who worked on the Metro system’s track equipment for 25 years.
“I’ve got a bunch of friends here,” he said, noting “the good feeling you get by helping people.”
He joked that he was a “trash man” there, bring boxes to recycling, and also pushing the “Uber” carts to clients’ cars.
‘Doing God’s work’
That day, volunteers Dave Chadwick and Steve Pedone drove the pantry’s truck and picked up milk, eggs, potatoes, carrots, apples and oranges at the Restaurant Depot in Capitol Heights and potatoes, eggs, green peppers, cucumbers, squash and zucchini at Serenity Farm in Benedict. The pantry also purchases food at discounted prices from the Maryland Food Bank. During the week, volunteers also pick up bakery items donated by a local Panera and meat and bakery items donated by two local Giant supermarket.
After they pulled up to the loading dock, Pedone, who is retired after working at the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant in the electric shop there, noted he has trained the pantry’s volunteers on how to drive a forklift, which he has driven since he was 16.
A member of St. John Vianney Parish since 1980, he said serving at the food pantry is “doing God’s work. I enjoy helping people, and this fit the bill.”
Chadwick, another longtime parishioner who is retired after working as a mechanical superintendent on construction projects, mostly at BWI Airport, said, “I just enjoy helping out. It’s fun working with the guys, whatever we do.”
Volunteer Roger Boucher helps organize the freezers at the pantry. Now semi-retired after working as a factory representative for 40 years, the St. John Vianney parishioner works at Sneade’s Ace Home Center in Lusby.
“It’s quite awesome,” he said, showing a visitor the food pantry’s 10-foot by 25-foot walk-in freezer. He noted how they give clients pieces of a variety of meats like pork, beef and chicken, and larger families get bigger portions of items like pork shoulders, turkey breasts and roaster chickens. Thanksgiving fare includes donated turkeys.
“The people we meet outside are super-appreciative,” Boucher said.
Like Donnelly, Rocco “Rocky” Ragano is a St. John Vianney parishioner who has volunteered with the food pantry there since “day one.” Ragano, 84, is a retired IRS information systems manager who serves as the pantry’s finance manager.
“We try not to cost the church anything,” said Ragano, who noted the food pantry spent less than half of its $101,000 budget allotted for fiscal year 2021 that ended June 30, thanks to so much free and discounted food that they are able to collect. He said about one-half of the pantry’s income is provided by parishioners’ donations, and the other half comes from support by local businesses and organizations and through grants. Parishioners support it through the poor box collection on the first Sunday of each month, and some have handed Donnelly checks with major donations for the pantry or left bequests to the pantry in their wills.
That afternoon, Ed Spicka, a grand knight with the Knights of Columbus council at Jesus the Divine Word Parish, delivered a $500 check to the pantry from that council.
Another member of Jesus the Divine Word, Denny Dehne, has been volunteering at the pantry for about eight years. Dehne, 75, is retired after working in finance for the Lockheed Martin aerospace, defense and technology corporation. He had to stop working after a health condition left him legally blind.
He then found volunteer service he could do, noting that he felt, “Don’t write me off yet. There’s still something I can do.”
Dehne helps build boxes for the food to be packed in and breaks down old boxes for recycling. He helps prepare the bags that food is placed in, and joins the crews going outside to help register the cars lining up.
He joked that “the main reason I do this is to get out of the house and get out of my wife’s hair,” but earlier he noted, “I want to do whatever I can to give back.”
‘Hope that things are getting better’
Among three students helping out at the food pantry that day was Dominic Sauls, 11, an incoming sixth grader at Calvert Middle School in Prince Frederick and St. John Vianney parishioner, who was bagging up produce.
“I like giving food to people who need it and helping out,” he said.
Joining him were young volunteers Russell White, 12, an incoming seventh grader at Southern Middle School in Lusby, and Trevin Sauls, 15, a St. John Vianney parishioner who is a 10th grader at Calvert High School in Prince Frederick.
The Sauls’ grandfather, Don Sauls, has been volunteering with the food pantry since 2013, after retiring as a Xerox service technician.
“I just firmly believe in us reaching out to the poor,” said the longtime St. John Vianney parishioner.
He praised Donnelly’s resourcefulness, noting how he was able to get the 10-foot high shelves for the food pantry from a Prince Frederick Kmart that was closing.
Remembering the early days of the pantry in its former building, Sauls said, “Carrying food up and down those steps was murder. Every one of us ended up with a bad back.” He added that now at the new facility, “The forklifts and hand jacks made this job easier.”
That afternoon, Gloria Della, another St. John Vianney parishioner, was volunteering at tables set outside the pantry, where people pulling up in cars could select fresh produce from local farms and gardens, including carrots and radishes, collard greens, squash, zucchini, cucumbers and eggplant, along with tomatoes.
Della, who is retired and whose government service included working as a press secretary at the U.S. Department of Labor, said it was meaningful to her that “we’re giving people a way to feed their families.”
She said the fact that they were seeing fewer cars than during the pandemic, “gives me hope that things are getting better.”
Volunteer John Weigel, a retired physician, was helping pack food and push carts of food to the cars outside. He called the food pantry “an impressive operation for a small parish.”
“We’re called to serve others. I’ve been very fortunate in what I’ve been doing,” said the retired physician, who worked in internal medicine for 36 years. “This is an opportunity to give back.”
Kevin McCarthy, a retired meteorologist driving a forklift at the food pantry that afternoon, said he had also been looking for a way to give back. “You’re helping people. The need is there,” said the member of Jesus the Good Shepherd Parish in Owings.
Helping to put boxes and bags of food in people’s car trunks and backseats that afternoon was Willie Parran, a former Calvert County school bus driver.
Parran, who is 6 feet, 6 inches tall and a member of Greater Bible Way Church in Prince Frederick, also drove dump trucks. Over the years he had faced challenges like getting hurt and being on disability, and sometimes he had gotten food help.
“When I got back on my feet, when I first came and saw what they were doing, I said, ‘Larry, I’d like to work here and volunteer,’” he said.
For Parran, volunteering there gives him a chance “to know people, love people and talk to people, which is what I used to do on the school bus.”
‘To me, it’s God’s calling’
As clients arrived, volunteer Darcy Richards, a retired high school math teacher who is also a St. John Vianney parishioner, was greeting them, assigning a number to their cars, and using a computer tablet to put information into a database about the size of their family or household, and whether they would prefer traditional American or Latino food items, and which vegetables they’d like.
“It’s a basic need for life to have food. It’s a good way to help the community,” she said.
The people coming for food assistance there face different circumstances, Richards said, remembering a woman who came in with young children, and she had cancer and was unable to work.
“They are touched by what this pantry does for them,” she said.
Judy Fisiorek, another member of St. John Vianney Parish, has been volunteering at the food pantry for about 10 years. That afternoon, she was serving as a team leader for the volunteers, and she also helps manage the pantry’s office. She retired from working as an engineer at a factory in New Jersey.
“We all get along,” Fisiorek said. “The common goal is the same, to work together to help the less fortunate.”
Helping to restock shelves that afternoon were volunteers Mary St. Pierre and Gina Basile. One shelf had protein items like cans of tuna, chicken, beef stew and ravioli, and another shelf had canned fruits and vegetables.
Mary St. Pierre, a parishioner at Jesus the Divine Word, began volunteering at the pantry after retiring as a nurse. Over the years, she was a visiting nurse and worked in hospice and home care.
“Throughout my whole career, I was involved with working with people and helping people, and this is a continuation of that,” she said.
Gina Basile, a member of another Calvert County parish, Our Lady Star of the Sea in Solomons, joined the food pantry volunteers when the program started, after she retired as a human resources contractor for the federal government specializing in executive recruiting.
“Personally, I love to help. I wanted to help the parish and help the community, that’s why I started,” Basile said. “My dad had a pizza place. I love working with customers and food, and helping the community.”
She added, “To me, it’s God’s calling, helping those in need.”
Starting with prayer
At 3 p.m. before the food was given out that Wednesday, the volunteers at the St. John Vianney Inter-Faith Food Pantry gathered with Donnelly and prayed, thanking God for providing them with food to help others in the community. On a shelf in the pantry, a simple rosary was hung, near packages of white rice and mashed potatoes.
Donnelly’s Catholic faith is central to his life and shapes his leadership of the food pantry. He begins and ends his days in prayer, serves as an usher at Masses and a sacristan at the church, prays the rosary and also prays at Eucharistic Adoration in the parish’s chapel every Thursday.
“He (God) gave us this building,” the food pantry’s director said, adding that in the two years as the new building was being planned and constructed, “while this was going on, I was talking to Jesus and the Blessed Mother every day, and they answered me all the time. They never let me down… They were beside us the whole way.”
Father Daly agreed, saying, “All in all, everything came together… People know this is what God wants. This is the work of the Lord.”
The retired priest said the food pantry’s outreach and the service of its volunteers is rooted in Jesus’s words in Matthew 25:35 – “For I was hungry, and you gave me food…”
“We might have disagreements with politics, theology or liturgy, but we know feeding the poor is what God wants of you,” Father Daly said.
Father Daniel Carson, who succeeded Father Daly as pastor of St. John Vianney Parish from 2017 until 2019, joined him that year in blessing and dedicating the new food pantry there.
Now serving as the vicar general and moderator of the Curia for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, Father Carson said many of St. John Vianney Parish’s ministries and outreach programs like the food pantry really blossomed after Father Daly started daily Eucharistic Adoration there.
“So many of the people credit prayer and leaning on Jesus Christ as the core of making these things work,” he said.
Father Carson praised the food pantry volunteers for showing respect for the human dignity of every person who comes there for help.
“They’re there to give more than just food,” he said, noting they are reflecting their faith to others, and other services are also provided there, like mobile health units.
The priest, now involved in the daily administration of the archdiocese, praised St. John Vianney’s food pantry, saying, “It’s definitely one of the most efficient set-ups to serve a great number of people in need.”
Father Joseph Pierce, St. John Vianney’s current pastor, agreed, saying, “It’s probably a model for many food pantries. If they can get appropriate funding, it becomes not only a benefit for the needy, but it empowers the community it’s part of.” He noted how the volunteers include members of local Catholic parishes or Christian churches, along with some not connected to a church, “still they’re doing the work the Lord asks us to do.”
The priest, who began leading the parish in July 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, noted the food pantry continued its outreach uninterrupted, with safety protocols, because it was seen as an essential ministry, especially in that challenging time.
St. John Vianney’s pastor said it is inspiring for him to “see the works of mercy coming to life, as words in action” at the food pantry.
And he praised its director’s faith and skill, saying, “The food pantry and Larry Donnelly are synonymous.”
During his busy day leading the volunteers at the St. John Vianney Inter-Faith Food Pantry, Donnelly told a visitor about an experience he had in the community, when a woman pulled beside his car at a red light, rolled down her window, and offered simple words of thanks, saying, “You know we love you!”
The volunteers at the parish’s food pantry, reflecting on the neighbors they help, would probably say the feeling is mutual.
