By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Catholic Charities’ new regional office in Del Rio is ready to help the community’s least fortunate members, a mission mandated in the Bible’s New Testament.
“Catholic Charities has over 40 programs in San Antonio, and we found need to expand what we were offering in Del Rio. We have a senior program that’s operated here for a couple of years at least, especially during the pandemic, so we just want to provide service to families and communities in the more rural areas of the archdiocese, so one thing we’re starting with is the food pantry,” said Tara Ford, Catholic Charities interim vice president of mission advancement.
The food pantry is located in the organization’s new Del Rio site, 106 Miers St.
Lizzy Perales, Catholic Charities vice president of programs, explained how the food pantry will operate.
“This is a client-choice food pantry, so we want it to be a hand up, even if people are food insecure or going through something in their life, we still want them to feel that dignity and respect that they can move to the next level or take the next step to improve their quality of life.
“They can come with a shopping cart and pick out what they want. We try to make it easy, so they’ll get a sheet when they come in that’ll explain that they can pick out so many canned items, so many protein items, so many vegetables. It’s a full pantry, so it makes a full nutritional meal,” Perales said.
Like a grocery store, the food pantry includes a variety of staples like rice and beans, powdered milk, canned and jarred fruits and vegetables, pasta, cereal, as well as fresh fruits and vegetables, bread and tortillas and meats and cheese.
“We really do have a variety of everything,” Perales said.
Catholic Charities’ efforts here are funded by donations and a small budget for food purchases, provided by the larger umbrella organization.
“It’s made up of donated and purchased food items, and we also have a partnership with the South Texas Food Bank,” Perales said.
She said if Del Rioans want to help support Catholic Charities work here, they can drop by the regional office at 106 Miers St., to drop off donated food and receive a donation receipt or they can go on the organization’s web site at www.ccaosa.org to make a monetary donation.
If you click on the “donate” button on the web site, you can specify that your donation is used in Del Rio, she said.
Ford also provided a tour through the site’s “clothes closet.” Like the food pantry, clients can come in and pick out the clothing and shoes they need.
“Today, we’re celebrating the grand opening of this office. We have multiple programs that will be operating from Del Rio, the food pantry, a clothes closet. We’ll also have Caritas legal services, and we’ll have a lawyer who can provide legal aid. We have counseling, so we’ll have counselors on-site, and we’ll have parenting education,” Ford said.
In response to a question from the 830 Times, Ford said the opening of Catholic Charities in Del Rio was in no way driven by the upswing in immigrants the region has seen over the past 17 months.
“This has been planned for some time. We just want to reach out into the rural parts of our archdiocese to make sure everyone’s covered. The recent tragedy in Uvalde has underscored the importance for us to move outside of San Antonio to make sure we’re providing services to those communities,” Ford said.
Persons in need can contact the local Catholic Charities office by calling 210-242-3100 and make an appointment with the case managers.
“We always take walk-ins as well. Come in and speak with a case manager, and the case manager will walk you through the sorts of services available for a person or a family, and then we’ll go from there,” Ford said.
She emphasized that clients do not have to be Catholic to participate.
“We serve all people, with no regard for race, religion or national origin, so people passing through may get some services as well,” she said.
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