Council 9368 Tips the Food Donation Scales

The Knights of Columbus od Council 9368 in Round Rock led a month-long food drive campaign organizing and coordinating churchwide food donation drive at St. William Catholic Church to benefit the St. Vincent DePaul Society – who helps those most people in need in our community.

The Knights of Columbus is committed to ending hunger in local communities by asking local councils to participate in the “Orderwide Food for Families Program.”

Since 2012, the Knights of Columbus nationally has donated over $8.5 million and 14.7 million pounds of food to local food pantries, community food banks and soup kitchens.

The food drive was done during the Lenten season at the suggestion of the pastor of St. William Catholic Church to emphasize prayer, fasting and almsgiving. This was a great way for all ministries and parishioners to participate in a simple program and to collaborate together.

Council 9368 had 46 Knights helping with four English masses (six men at each of these masses) and two men at each of the Spanish masses (with help from the St. Williams Volunteer office) during March 4-5 and March 11-12 handing out grocery bags after each mass.

Moreover, we had 2-5 men each Monday, Wednesday and Friday picking up the donated food bags from the bins in the Narthex and taking them to the SVdP building to weigh and sort.

During the month of March, picked up and delivered 7,753 lbs. (nearly four tons) of donated food. In March 2016, SVdP received 1,397 lbs. A year earlier, St. Vincent de Paul garnered about 200 lbs of donated food during March 2015.

More than 1,500 lbs. was taken to the SVdP Family Center in North Austin because there was not enough room to hold all of the donated food received. This equates to about $13,180 worth of donated food. It will provide meals for about 228 families or 912 individuals.

The Knights volunteered more than 806 hours and had 50 slots signed-up for throughout March to help.