Catholic Charities sees growing need for food and funding during pandemic

Jacksonville, FL — Each week he says he’s serving more and more people because of the pandemic.

"Because of the virus the lines getting longer and longer," Keane said.

On Friday we caught up with Keane and the rest of the volunteers packing bags before the drive-thru pantry opened.

Each volunteer filled the bags with things like fresh fruits and milk that will go out to these needy families.

Normally the organization serves 100 families a week, but since the pandemic hit, that number has grown to 140 families per week.

“The family sizes are larger and we’re seeing people come from all over Jacksonville, whereas normally they would just come from the neighborhood of 32209 so we’ve really seen an increase,” Lauren Weedon Hopkins, regional director of Catholic Charities Jacksonville said.

In order to stay safe, all the volunteers are using masks while working at the drive-thru food pantry.

They’re also using new gloves with every bag they touch and hand sanitizer too to keep volunteers and clients safe.

Catholic Charities has also had to cut its volunteer staff in half from 12 to 6 people.

Keane said along as there’s a need he’ll be there to answer the call.

“I like doing it, I like to play golf, I’d rather do this than play golf if I had to make a choice I’d be here,” Keane said.

Each family will get two bags that will feed them for a week and staff will load the bags into their cars no questions asked.

Last year Catholic Charities Jacksonville was able to raise $100,000 through one of their major fundraising events to help a lot of those families in need.

Last month, that event, the Black and White ball was canceled and now they’re in desperate need of funding.

That's why they've launched Feed a Family Campaign to help raise $100,000.

If you’d like to help out with their new Feed a Family campaign you can head to their Website.

The organization says a donation for $50 can help feed two people for an entire week.

DONATE HERE: https://www.ccbjax.org/donate 

The Catholic Charities food pantry is open on Wednesdays and Friday from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

1470 West 13TH Street, Jacksonville Fl 32209