Catholic Charities of Louisville was on ALL FOUR local news stations yesterday, announcing our new Father Jack Jones Food pantry. Here are links to the reports:
New food pantry to serve central Louisville opens May 12
Catholic Charities of Louisville will open Louisville’s newest Dare to Care food pantry this Wednesday, May 12, on the campus of Holy Name Catholic Church, 2914 S. Third St. The Father Jack Jones Food Pantry will initially be open from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Wednesdays.
The pantry is named in honor of the Louisville priest who founded Dare to Care in 1969 after 9-year-old Louisvillian Bobby Ellis starved to death, on Thanksgiving Eve. Ellis weighed only 20 pounds.
Although anyone with need will be served, the pantry aims to serve those living between I-65 and 7th Street Rd. to the east and west, and the University of Louisville and the Watterson Expressway to the north and south.
Catholic Charities Chief Executive Officer Lisa DeJaco Crutcher said her agency was approached in 2020 by Dare to Care, a significant partner for Catholic Charities through its Common Table program and its Sister Visitor Center in west Louisville. The food bank recognized that Catholic Charities headquarters was located in a geographic pocket with significant need but not enough pantry support, especially due to COVID cutbacks. Catholic Charities was eager to help, but finding space to do so meant calling on the parish.
“This collaboration among Catholic Charities, Dare to Care, and the local parish is ideal,” said DeJaco Crutcher. “Volunteers from Holy Name and its sister parish Holy Trinity are unloading trucks, sorting and bagging, and distributing food. This is how we best walk alongside people in their journey from struggle to self-sufficiency: by engaging neighbors to help neighbors.”
Eventually, organizers would like to see a “choice” pantry serving the area five days a week, where clients get to choose their foods in a small store-like setting, similar to the one Catholic Charities operates at its Sister Visitor Center. Dare to Care projects that such a pantry would serve 250 families a month.
Fr. Jones started Dare to Care by driving through the city to pick up donations of food in his pickup truck and then storing them in the basement of St. John Church until he could deliver them to food pantries around the city. He wanted to take care of hunger on a year-round basis, he said in a 1975 interview. “We wanted to get away from the Christmas basket mentality.”
Catholic Charities of Louisville is the social services ministry of the Archdiocese of Louisville and a member of Catholic Charities USA. Founded in 1939, its mission is to provide services to people in need, especially the poor and oppressed, advocate for justice in social structures, and call the entire church and others of good will to do the same.