The annual Food for Families Food Drive is Tuesday, December 10th. The Ville Platte location will be at the Northside Civic Center from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Mamou’s drop-off location will be at St. Ann’s Catholic Church from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Non-perishable food items are needed. These include dry beans, rice, canned vegetables and fruit, cereal, dry milk, fruit juice, cooking oil, peanut butter, canned meat, etc. Santa Claus will also be at the Northside Civic Center, and DJ Jude Dardeau will be playing Christmas music.
Eugene Fontenot, chairman of the Care & Share Center and the Food Net Food Drive said, “We’ve been doing this for 33 years, since 1985. We have some of the same volunteers since the beginning. I started the Care & Share Center here by providing the use of the building. It was a clothing store in the beginning. I thought it would be good to have a place in the center of town where you would reach people from all walks of life. We have no expenses. No utilities, since that’s provided by the churches. I usually take care of some of the maintenance, but it’s provided to a great extent by Sacred Heart Catholic Church. They do solicitations for the Care & Share through the church and give donations throughout the year. During Lenten time, people donate goods, money, and time to the needy as part of their sacrificial gift.”
Fontenot said the food pantry is nearly empty, and they are in desperate need to restock. The Food Net Food Drive takes place every year between Thanksgiving and Christmas. He thanked KVPI and the Gazette for advertising and doing live remotes. He said it is easy to make a donation the day of the event. Donors can simply drive up to the drop-off locations and stay in their vehicles while volunteers take the donations. “Immediately after that day, we begin distributing to the needy.” He said the needy are determined usually by the government guideline on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP/food stamps) eligibility.
When asked if he is worried about President Trump’s administration’s formalization of work requirements for SNAP which could cause hundreds of thousands of people to lose benefits, Fontenot said, “There’s always that possibility, as well as a reduction in medical payments with Medicare and Medicaid. We try to fill in that gap.” He said they still look at people who lose their SNAP benefits. “Sometimes we get the newly-poor, middle class people who have lost their jobs, who need emergency help. We do fill in a helping hand there. Not as a hand out, but a hand up. And when we continue to work as volunteers, we see many people who have received assistance come back and help with the food drive.”
When asked what it means to him to be involved with the Christian Care & Share Center, Fontenot said, “It’s been really a wonderful experience. It’s been good for me in so many ways, in developing good relationships with people, enabling others to be of service, giving of ourselves instead of just receiving all the time. It’s sort of a break from the norm of society, and it just makes you feel good. There’s a lot of goodness in giving. You feel good about yourself and I think it’s good for your health.”
Fontenot said he hopes to see the pantry restocked. “We only receive enough for about six months out of the year. We have to solicit again in many different ways. And we do get monetary donations to help with utilities. That’s a big problem in just about all of your poor communities. Utility bills are expensive. A lot of the times we have to help with part of the bill so they don’t get cut off in the middle of the winter, and some have small children. We help about 350 families a year in the local area.” The center also has clothes and bedding, which he said helps people who have losses due to fires and other unforeseen circumstances. Fontenot said he is also considering adding pet food to the pantry to help those struggling so they will not have to give up their pets.
The Christian Care & Share Center is open Mondays and Thursdays from 8:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m., located 129 West Main Street in Ville Platte.
For more information, visit: www.catholiccharitiesacadiana.org/foodforfamilies2019
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Nancy Duplechain
Associate Editor