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December 14, 2023A table was covered with Thanksgiving food items inside the McGurk Room at Saint Mary Catholic Church in Ponca City. Much of it nonperishable, canned fruit and vegetables, but also stuffing, bread and rolls – a meal ready for a family to take home for the holiday.
Members of the Blessed Stanley Rother Committee organized those items into boxes spread across two neighboring tables, food that would soon be picked up by needy families across the Ponca City community, just one way the church gives back to those in need during the holidays.
Committee members Cleta Privett and Linda Brandt, along with volunteer Jodie Schutte, filled the boxes that morning. The parish has been putting the food together for about 20 years.
The process begins several weeks in advance, starting with identifying families who could benefit from those boxes.
“We gather names of people who might need help with a nice meal and other items,” Privett said. “We take items every Thanksgiving to assist people in need with utilities, rent, prescriptions, and gas vouchers.”
Families themselves can approach the church.
“Some people call the church office for assistance, and some of them are people who have come in for the last several months for assistance,” Privett said.
Students at Saint Mary Catholic School also step in to help.
“The school kids collect the food, and then we get either a ham or a turkey to put with the box, and a nice pie, which will make a nice Thanksgiving meal,” Privett said.
Only a handful of boxes are made each year, as it gives them an opportunity to make the boxes that much more meaningful for the families.
“We try to keep it around 12. This year, we are doing 11. It just depends on the demand year-to-year,” Privett said. “They are notified when to come, and they come and pick it up.”
Saint Mary Catholic Church also helps families for Christmas, although in a different way, through a food drive all parishioners can participate in, which includes toiletries and Christmas gifts for the children.
The food and gift drive are facilitated by the Family Life Committee.
Located at the back of the church are two Christmas trees decorated with colorful ornaments. Those aren’t typical glass ornaments, however, but requests from the community for food and gift needs. Parishioners can pull the ornament requests from the tree and leave the donations in the back pews of the church.
Known as the Trees of Love, they seek to help the most vulnerable families in the Ponca City community.
While the Thanksgiving boxes only serve about a dozen families, the Tree of Love program serves many more.
“We serve families in the community in need. The most families we ever served were 40, with food and gifts for the children,” Isela Aguilar said. “The gifts are sorted by students at the school and gift-wrapped by parishioners.”
The food drive started more than 50 years ago, and similarly to the Thanksgiving meal, it was originally intended for a Christmas meal.
“It started out being a dinner for the families, but then the parishioners kept bringing in groceries, and it turned into two – three weeks (of food) in the box,” said Vonda Blando, who has been active with the committee for about 15 years.
The families also come from across the community, those who need a little help during Christmas.
“Some of them come here; some of them are recommended by people from the church, school,” Aguilar said. “We do it for the community, all of Ponca City.”
Aguilar related that they had more than 30 families identified just after Thanksgiving.
The idea of the Thanksgiving and Christmas drives is a way for the church to reach out into the community, meeting them where they are and helping them in one of the most difficult times of the year.
“This is about giving back and helping the community, helping those less fortunate,” Blando said.
Brandt added that “There is a definite need to help people at Thanksgiving and Christmas.”
Everett Brazil III is a freelance writer for the Sooner Catholic.
