St. Benedict's offers food, solace, and stability - to the homeless of Holmdel, New Jersey

Food and Nutrition, Fall, 1988 by Linda Feldman

Outside in the scorching heat of the summer sun, 10 or 15 children are playing. The children are neatly dressed; some are toddlers, a few teens.

Inside the air-conditioned parish house, two or three mothers are still finishing their lunches-pieces of baked chicken and thick, crusty bread left on their plates. A baby sleeps restlessly in a crib by one wall.

The scene could be a typical church gathering, a friendly meal with a sense of caring and community.

Yet something is different. Perhaps it is the stress that shows on the mothers' faces. Perhaps it is the urgency in their voices. These women are homeless. They are staying at welfare motels, and the parish house offers them a weekly respite, a meal and a place for their kids to play.

The parish house belongs to the community of St. Benedict's, a Catholic parish in affluent Holmdel, New Jersey a bedroom community to New York and Philadelphia. Its sprawling, almost rural setting boasts well-kept lawns and a number of low buildings separated by a large parking lot.

Seeing clear need to help homeless

Sister Dorothy a social worker, is head of the social ministry office. One day not far from St. Benedict's, she watched as a pregnant mother and her three young children crossed a fourlane divided road in the middle of traffic.

The mother had food stamps, Sister Dorothy later found out, and all she saw was the food store across the street, not the danger to herself or children crossing the street. "It struck me, the aloneness and the emotion," says Sister Dorothy. She says she knew then that something had to be done.

The family was among the estimated 28,000 homeless in New Jersey They were living in temporary quarters in one of three motels near St. Benedict's.

Shortly after, Sister Dorothy helped set up a food pantry for the homeless people in these motels. From there, she opened the parish doors to the homeless families every Tuesday, for a hot meal, a place to gather and talk, for some stability for the children who have no place to call home.

Parishioners of all ages help with this effort. Eighth-grade students, as part of their social ministry work, babysit the children from the motels on Tuesdays. Volunteers from the parish, along with the homeless moms, help cook meals.

Although the parish gets most of its food from a nearby food pantry at 12 cents a pound, parishioners make up the difference, both in food and monetary donations. They also offer clothing and diapers. "The parishioners are very generous:' says Sister Dorothy.

In addition, the parish helps send some of the homeless children to Katari Day Camp, a day camp for welfare children where Sister Dorothy worked for 20 years. Katari gets help from many sources, including USDA's Summer Food Service Program.

Homeless mother finds home for WIC

Nancy a single mother, is one of the homeless who came to St. Benedict's. She and 3-1/2-year-old daughter Allison had been without a permanent residence since 1984 when they recently found a house to share.

Nancy is tenacious, intelligent, and driven. Eager to help others facing difficult times, she and her new housemate, Mary, formed a homeless action team that, among other things, has brought USDA's WIC program to St. Benedict's one Tuesday afternoon a month.

Nancy, who started on WIC in 1984 with her daughter, had tried calling various agencies to get emergency milk for the babies of some of the families she knew. She ended up talking to MCOSS, the nonprofit health and social services agency that administers WIC in Monmouth County and found people eager to help.

As a first step, MCOSS office manager Jackie Snow arranged for a formula company to deliver infant formula, free of charge, to St. Benedict's. Then, in March of this year, with Nancy's and Sister Dorothy's help, Snow arranged to begin a once-a-month WIC clinic at St. Benedict's for the homeless families living in the three Holmdel motels.

To reach mothers and children in need of help, Nancy and Mary conduct their own outreach program, knocking on doors at the three welfare motels. The homeless action team has bought a van which they use to bring families to St. Benedict's, and to take them shopping to use their WIC vouchers and to other appointments. They arrange for speakers and other activities, and even have fund raisers to pay for these events.

One of the people who works with the WIC program at St. Benedict's is nutritionist Jean Cox, who helps homeless families on WIC cope with their special nutritional problems. Some of the motels for the homeless have no refrigerators or air conditioning. In some, no hot plates or cooking facilities are allowed, or families have to borrow hot plate or stove from a neighbor.

The nutrition lesson Cox gave to WIC families one Tuesday in June centered on healthy snacks. With limited kitchen facilities, she suggested snacking on cereals and cheese, crackers and bread; buying powdered or canned milk. If more than one person is on WIC in the family, she advised using only one voucher at a time. Some instant foods are OK, she told the group, but cautioned the families to read the labels and watch prices.