SPEAKER_02 0:08

Hello, my brothers and sisters in Christ. Welcome to Beyond the Beacon, a podcast of the Diocese of Patterson. I'm usually the co-host, Bishop Kevin Sweeney. I'm hosting today and happy to be here at the newly renovated Father English food pantry here in our beloved city of Patterson. I was just recalling with our guests that I think two years ago we were together for a podcast episode in the temporary location in next to St. Joseph's Hospital, right? Thanks to St. Joseph's Health. For and we'll recap that a little bit, but uh I'm happy to introduce our guest today. Um Scott Milliken, CEO of our Catholic Charities. How many years now with Catholic Charities?

SPEAKER_01 0:48

34.

SPEAKER_02 0:49

34. Uh Carlos Roll Roldown. Rolldon, yes. Rolldown. Uh how many years in the Father English food pantry? 33. 33. 33. 30, how many?

SPEAKER_01 0:59

34.

SPEAKER_02 1:00

34, 33. Tim Potter, our director of development, how many years with the diocese? 33. 33. How about you? Wow. Six and a half. So um, but uh, my math quickly, that's about 99 or 100 years if you put it all together, right? So um well, thank you, uh brothers, for being here. And uh Jay is behind the camera today with Cecile, and um uh we're now in the month of November. We celebrated All Saints and All Souls Day two weekends ago, last weekend. Um we had our Diocin Youth Day yesterday, which was great. And uh we're still in the Diocin Ministries appeal, and Tim can say some words about that. But some of the beauty that you'll see today is because of the generosity of the people of our diocese. Um and we just had our um uh Caritasgala uh last Thursday, we can mention that as well. So plenty to be grateful for, and we in these days are starting to look forward to Thanksgiving. So I think a good time to talk about our newly renovated uh food pantry. So maybe we can begin in prayer. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lord Jesus, you tell us that you have prepared a place for each of us in your Father's house, in our Father's house in heaven. We give thanks to God for and give thanks to you for the gift of life and family, for the gift of a home, and for the food that we eat and share. Today we give thanks in a special way for this newly renovated Father English food pantry, and for those who have made it possible. As we pray for all of our sisters and brothers in need, pray for the Church of our Diocese of Patterson, and we unite all our prayers together as one as we pray as Jesus Himself has taught us. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen. Our lady seed of wisdom, mother of the church. And on this feast of St. John Lateran, we pray for our Holy Father, Pope Leo, and for the whole church, and asking the intercession of all the angels and saints of all the holy men and women, pray for us, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So um thank you again. And I'm just thinking, um, maybe Carlos, you can start us off, give a brief uh synopsis or summary of the last 30-something years since you started in a closet uh next door to us here, right?

SPEAKER_00 3:36

Uh yes, I I cannot believe it's been 33 years, and what we have right now is what I had in my mind. It was my dream for the last 33 years. It's hard to believe that we started in a little corner in the back, and now we have this huge, beautiful place. We moved back from the hospital here back in in May, and then we opened up this food pantry in August. And it's been amazing, it's been incredible. People are very happy, they're taking all the food that they need, exactly what they want, and all I get is beautiful comments and thank yous and God bless you every single day.

SPEAKER_02 4:11

Uh great. And uh it's plenty of activity here today. And uh uh you didn't really miss the beat going through you know, during COVID, even the lockdown, uh the sharing of uh food continued, and then thanks to St. Joseph's and the temporary location, everybody moved and found out and went went there, and now everybody's back here uh with plenty of activity, huh?

SPEAKER_00 4:33

Yes, yes, we we haven't stopped. When we moved out of here to go to St. Joseph Hospital, we thought we were we needed to stop at least for two or three weeks and we couldn't. I don't I didn't think it was fair to our people who need food just to wait just because we were not settled. So we did both things at the same time. We got settled and we uh continued helping people and it was amazing. The frustration was when we came back here because of licensing, we couldn't open yet. So that was the craziest two months of my life because I had the food, I had the space, I had the people who needed the food, and I couldn't give it up. I it was it was it was the turn on the lights.

SPEAKER_02 5:08

It was bad. Um thank God we all things work out, and yes, with God um good leadership and volunteers, all things are possible. Yes, uh so Scott, maybe uh take us back to a conversation you had with me. I don't know whether it's three or four or five years ago when you said uh I would just was just here a year or two, and um you said, Bishop, uh the building where the Father English uh center is is in bad shape and needs some major work, right?

SPEAKER_01 5:38

Sure. Um as has been with a lot of our Catholic charities facilities, which um I'm happy to say we're all caught up facility-wise. We have really good buildings. Uh you know, we talk about Brand new straight and narrow building, right? Brand new straight and narrow building. Partnerships for people in Sussex has been completely renovated where we're doing 3,000 meals a month. Um, and all because of the consolidated board effort to focus on projects, get them done, and move on to the next. Uh so you were here?

SPEAKER_02 6:13

And the Father English Center where we're located, um, we're actually in the building that was a Parish Hall, right? Uh not the cathedral, even though we're a couple blocks away. What was the parish again? Um St. Boniface. St. Boniface, right here. Uh so Carlos got a um uh a closet at one point, right? Just to report it. It expanded, um, but then it was falling down.

SPEAKER_01 6:34

So what was so falling down around itself. It was imploding. Uh it needed a roof. Uh leak, there was leaks everywhere. There was no HVAC. So our volunteers and constituents who come for food, uh, you know, if it was really hot out, it was hot in here. If it was really cold out, it was cold in here. Uh so now we have proper HVAC. We didn't have proper electric. If you went down, I think we looked at it, uh, Eddie Munster, the the the switch that turned turned off the electric, it was just so archaic. Uh and now we have proper electric, uh, prop proper bathrooms, proper waiting area for people to come so that they're not waiting outside.

SPEAKER_02 7:22

Shelves and refrigeration, right? Everything fresh, fresh, fresh, fresh. Not only uh boxes and cans, but fresh fruit as well, right? To try to keep help people be healthy.

SPEAKER_01 7:32

Yes, we're moving towards a fresh food initiative to get away from canned goods that are high in salt. And um, you know, we're having classes for diabetes, and we have a mammogram truck out there today.

SPEAKER_02 7:45

Maybe coming back in a few months to s learn what hydroponic Uh what is it, grow uh vegetable growing is gonna look like?

SPEAKER_01 7:52

Yes, we're putting uh a hydroponic farm right outside the food pantry that grows approximately 500 heads of lettuce every week.

SPEAKER_02 8:01

That's like a garden in a refitted container, right?

SPEAKER_01 8:04

Yes, it's a 40 foot by eight-foot trailer that will uh grows lettuce hydroponically on about three gallons of water a day. Uh no soil, all hydroponic uh. Uh it's fresh, fresh produce that'll come right into the food pantry and be handed out in one of our great great refrigerators.

SPEAKER_02 8:26

Uh and that that's thanks to a donation, right, of uh uh and and some uh funding as well?

SPEAKER_01 8:32

Yes, so um, you know, when we brought you through here three years ago, uh I said basically said, Bishop, if we don't do something, we're not gonna have a food pantry. Uh and that's when you got involved and you know, we kind of organized the capital campaign that Tim Tim got involved.

SPEAKER_02 8:51

And I think with Tim uh we uh two things in particular. One visit uh donors, generous donors, uh, who visited here before and saw the before, and we sat with them after a little tour and said, Can you help? And some responded incredibly generously. Yes, and then we made a commitment in our DOS and ministry's appeal for three years, I think.

SPEAKER_03 9:16

How much did we uh we uh committed uh $200,000 a year for three years, so a total of six hundred thousand dollars toward the renovation project, in addition to the uh funding, the major funding some from some of our benefactors and supporters who really helped help us with this.

SPEAKER_02 9:32

So that was six hundred from the appeal and um did we go over a million in terms of with the help from the others close to?

SPEAKER_03 9:39

Yeah, we we we did about about two a little over two million dollars. Right.

SPEAKER_02 9:43

So um we will have to be grateful for that. Um and uh and then and the people of our diocese who are so generous every year, pastors, um parish leaders. Uh we had the in-pew appeal a f uh a few weeks ago, and uh the needs continue. Um, but we're very grateful for many in the pews, um, uh whether it be filling out with a pencil at the in-pew weekend or giving online, those commitments and gifts to the appeal are so important, right?

SPEAKER_03 10:09

Well, it's really important to include include the food pantry in the diocese and trees appeal because we wanted everybody to witness the great work that's being done in their name and then be participating in it just like everybody else.

SPEAKER_02 10:46

And as we say, it's not o it's uh time, talent, and treasure, right? So the uh financial gifts that we've received, but um we also are parishioners, pastors, parish leaders um collect food and come and bring food, right? And and help to organize. And uh maybe Carlos, you can say a little bit about the support from parishes and from volunteers.

SPEAKER_00 11:05

Yes, if it wasn't for the parishes, we couldn't do what we're doing, definitely, because we a lot of food comes from them. Since day one, since 1993, when I started going out there trying to get these donations, some parishes say, yes, we're going to help you, and then more came along and and thank God we we have that. For example, the month of November, we're gonna have a lot of food because it's Thanksgiving, and then we also get a lot of extra food. But we have we have parvises like uh St. Brendan's, uh St. Patrick in in Chatham, St. Joseph in Denmark, Christ the King, definitely, St. Luke in Long Valley, and Annunciation. Many, many. I don't want to. Maybe all of them because I'm gonna forget. I don't want people to be offended. But I have to tell you that if it wasn't for your donations, we we couldn't do it. We go every Monday to two or three different parishes, and I know that we're gonna be getting good food, and and and we really appreciate that. I mean, this is a big thing. This is everybody in common working together to do this. It's not just me, it's not just us here, it's everybody who's behind the curtain who believes in us and who and who help us doing what we're doing.

SPEAKER_02 12:11

And something I really love. I don't know if it was Scott or Bishop Rodimer or um Bishop Saratelli, but someone whoever decided do a food drive at Corpus Christi on it so that's the summer, it's not, but um uh sometimes those donations dry up during the summer, right? And here in our diocese, um sometime in June at the feast of Corpus Christi, the body and blood of Christ, um we uh people donate food and other items to feed the body of Christ, literally, right? But which is um and I Tim, I think you see that as well in Scott, right? In terms of the responses for the uh and the and the work of teams and volunteers.

SPEAKER_00 12:45

Yeah. One one of the biggest issues we had before the bishops of before uh Corpus Christi is that summertime was very, very difficult for us. Very difficult. A lot of people who used to give us money, they go on vacation, so the money is not there. A lot of parishes uh who regularly went down because many people are on vacation. A lot of schools used to give us food, not anymore, because they were closed during summertime. So donations dropped drastically. But then here, people, kids were not going to school. And to so many of these kids, the meal that they got in school that was the only meal they got. So more people coming to the food pantry, less, a lot or less donations. Do you remember whose idea it was Corpus Christi food? It was Mr. Joe Duffy. Joe Duffy? Yes. Joe Duffy was the one. Yeah, many years ago, and that has been helping us a lot.

SPEAKER_01 13:36

And it was more streamlined and organized, so rather than people springing food, every parish is is asked to need this, so we need that. Yeah, so the whole parish collects spaghetti and and sauce, or this parish collects uh you know, peanut butter and jelly. This parish collects tuna fish and it just comes in and in bulks and it's more organized, easier to stock on the shelves. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 14:00

I'm with Knights of Columbus and one of again many groups at the uh the Order of Malta um who uh whether in those efforts or others are are are kind of there, but we need them, right, to um uh help us. So you're gonna give us a little tour. I think this is gonna be the first time we're gonna do a walking version of our podcast. So we're gonna uh pause for a moment and be back in another spot.

SPEAKER_00 14:20

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 14:20

Where are we gonna head?

SPEAKER_00 14:21

Okay, let's go to the football. Great.

SPEAKER_02 14:23

Thanks.

SPEAKER_00 14:29

All right, so as you see right now, we have a lot of people shopping around, and this is what we want. We have each person with a shopping cart and with a volunteer trying helping them selecting the items that they need and exactly how much they can take. Um, we see this every single day. Is it Monday to Friday? Yes, is it Monday to Friday? We are off in Monday to Friday from 8 30 in the morning to about 12 30, and then every other Saturday, same times.

SPEAKER_02 14:58

Um Scott, one of our board members uh when they saw the newly renovated uh um food pantry said it's better than any shop right in New Jersey, right?

SPEAKER_01 15:07

Yes, and that and that was Carlos's vision, really, to make it uh a dignified shopping experience rather than just getting handed a bag of food at a food pantry. People get points based on family size and can shop and and purchase food with their points.

SPEAKER_02 15:24

And uh Carlos, uh have you had some reaction from some of our guests that come to us and uh maybe knew beforehand and see it now?

SPEAKER_00 15:33

Yes, I remember like three weeks ago this lady was looking for Carlos. I didn't know who the lady was, and she's like, Carlos, Carlos, as soon as I say I'm Carlos, she gave me a beautiful hug. And she said, I feel helped, I felt hope, I felt that this is my place. I felt that it was okay to come to up with pantry. Nobody made me feel embarrassed, nobody made me feel that I didn't deserve. I am so happy and thank you so very much for having us here.

SPEAKER_02 15:57

And um a few weeks ago we had a blessing of the newly renovated Tim. Some of our um uh donors were there, right? Did you hear some of the reactions uh when they those we had visited with especially when they sold before and after.

SPEAKER_03 16:10

We sold it before the renovations uh and now seeing it to come to fruition, they could not believe how how fantastic it looks. And and I think one of the one of to me, one of the main things that makes this uh food pantry different than any others is the fact that we have that statue of Jesus embracing a person in need in front of the place. That's what we're about, that's why we're doing it.

SPEAKER_02 16:30

So uh two weeks from uh or or two weeks from yesterday, uh will be the last Sunday of the liturgical year, Feast of Christ the King, and we've been reading Matthew this year. The gospel in Matthew 25. Whatever you did or failed to do for the least, so I was hungry, you gave me the so uh we see the gospel uh come to life here, right? In in terms of seeing uh welcoming our Lord in in welcoming our sister and brothers. Scott, um, you mentioned uh the new pallets uh holders, right? Uh I'm not sure if we'll be able to get on camera until later, but and we have some uh refrigeration and even freezers in the back. Maybe some of our partners, right? Is it um New Jersey Food Bank? And um, right, we we get assistance from some community partners as well, right?

SPEAKER_01 17:11

Yes, yes, yes, um New Jersey Food Bank. We have a NJEAD grant, um, which is providing uh us to purchase fresh food uh to put into the into the refrigerators. Um and the refrigerators themselves hold pallets. Okay. So so uh we can we've more than tripled the amount of fresh food that we can hand out because of the refrigeration.

SPEAKER_02 17:37

And some other community partners as well. I think even other uh faith groups, right? The uh Jesus Christ and Latter-day Saints, the uh yes, yes.

SPEAKER_00 17:44

We also get a lot, we got, I would say, 28 pallets of food from them last year, and we're gonna be getting that again this year sometime soon. And then they also gave us money to buy the things that we didn't get donated. So this is not just us, that just as this a lot of people we get from the community food bank every Monday between 10 to 15. Community food bank. Food bank of New Jersey. Right. Between 10 to 15 palettes of food every single Monday. Actually, they're supposed to be coming soon.

SPEAKER_02 18:11

Right, and I don't know if you can see in the camera, but there's a backloading area here, and this is like a um a warehouse, well, close to where a storage area to replenish the shelves, right? And volunteers are do a great job at replying the shelves, right?

SPEAKER_00 18:25

Yes, yes. We have volunteers, we can always use more. We always always look for volunteers because it's a lot going on, and we don't have the staff members. We need to get volunteers and we rely on a lot on volunteers.

SPEAKER_02 18:36

We'll be able to put something in the show notes that if somebody wants to volunteer, right? They can reach out. Yes, yes, yes, absolutely. Yes, yeah. So um we're getting ready for Thanksgiving. There's gonna be a few turkeys handed out, I think, as well in the coming weeks. Well, actually, we're already giving turkeys out.

SPEAKER_00 18:50

We started giving turkeys out last week because people come once a month, and uh uh so next time they come back, it's gonna be in December, and I want them to get a nice Thanksgiving dinner. So we started giving turkeys out last week, and we have enough for this holidays. And you're gonna come to help me one day, right? Yes, please. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_02 19:07

Tim, I remember something our donors uh talked about and were impressed by. I think that it's not only that we're um uh helping distribute food, but um uh uh resume work, uh English classes, computer classes. Uh we can maybe show it all on on the camera here, but it write in other parts, and and many of our donors were happy to hear about that.

SPEAKER_03 19:27

Right. So we wanted this to be extensive, not just for the food pantry, which is obviously a great need, but to help the community in terms of computer classes, English as a second language, because we want them to just to be not just to be nourished physically, but just to be, you know, better in in so many different ways.

SPEAKER_02 19:42

And people are grateful for that help, even some social service help, right, for families in need of counseling or those kinds of and and and there's uh space for that now, right? It's uh there's not just waiting outside on the sidewalk to receive a bag, but you can come in a reception area, you can wait in a uh a comfortable place, uh place for children, um, and uh and then uh not only food but other services as well.

SPEAKER_00 20:04

Well, this is what I call treating people with dignity and respect. No lines outside, everybody gets to a wait comes to one waiting area, uh and not only the food, but we're also gonna be doing, as he said, computer classes, English classes, a diabetes program. New Jersey is the state number six in diabetes in the whole country, and we need to help our brothers and sisters with that. So we're gonna be educated. As I said before, when they knock on the door, they're not just looking for food, they're looking for home.

SPEAKER_01 20:32

Absolutely. Carl Carlos just mentioned all of this would not have been possible to have the classes because it's downstairs. We had to put, we have an elevator now, an elevator to get in.

SPEAKER_02 20:41

There's a gentleman in a wheelchair here.

SPEAKER_01 20:43

Carlos just said that that prior to the renovation, that gentleman wouldn't have been able to come down here to buy his own food.

SPEAKER_02 20:51

And the outside is one of those buildings that's been around for a long time and handicap accessibility wasn't really thought of decades ago, right? But now it's the can it's it's that.

SPEAKER_01 21:00

And we literally had seven entrances into this building, and now it's one focal entrance point um for all services. The emergency supports is down here, uh, food, clothing, uh, emergency assistance.

SPEAKER_02 21:15

Um we got to make sure the volunteers can do their work, right? So well uh um maybe we can uh just say thank you to all those who um have been helped make this possible, and uh and thank you, Scott and Carlos and Tim Um for your leadership and and and all that you do to um help our diocese be who we're called to be as the church, right? This is this is uh living the mass, right? Where we Jesus feeds us with his body and blood and word at the Eucharist, and this is how we try to live it, right?

SPEAKER_01 21:44

Yes, and I said it at the Caritas Gala the other night. Uh the support of so many of our parishioners and volunteers and staff, um, your support allows us to say yes and open the door when so many people say no.

unknown 22:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:03

Their support allows us to say yes. Correct. Come in, we have something. That's not it's not us, right? But it's the donors and others that say that allow us to say come in and here we can offer you.

SPEAKER_01 22:13

And in the diocesan ministry's appeal, we you know we've been focused on the parable of Good Samaritan. And we are the innkeeper. We are the good Samaritan.

SPEAKER_02 22:23

That's right. That's right. Uh and I just but a lot of times we're the innkeeper. Yes. Good point. Yes, right. Someone else is giving us the financial help to help the the person who needs healing. Correct. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 22:35

Well, I I wanted to take the opportunity because, as I said before, all we do, all I do is talk. You are the ones who are running the show, you are the ones who are giving us the food, you are the ones who are giving us the hours, volunteer hours, you are the ones getting us the food. All these people get to eat because us here, because Catholic charities, but most important, because of you. And I'm gonna ask you to please, if I needed you before, I need you more now. This place is bigger, food is expensive, but I know that we are not feeding our kids. We are feeding his kids, and he's a good dad. And he's using you through him, through through you, he's giving us what we need. And I really, yeah, and I really appreciate that.

SPEAKER_03 23:12

I I cannot thank the people enough who support the Diocese Ministry's appeal. Uh none of this would happen without your support. And so we're so grateful for everything that you do to make this Church of Patterson such a great diocese and help so many people in need. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_02 23:28

Thanks again, everybody. Thanks to Jay and Cecile behind the camera there. And uh we keep one another in prayer. Pray for us this week, or actually next week, uh we'll I'll be meeting with all the bishops of the country in Baltimore for the uh annual bishops meeting. And before you know it, we'll be uh getting ready for Thanksgiving. But uh we're we have Thanksgiving every day here at the Father English Center, right? Because we're uh we're able to share uh the blessings we receive. And thank you again. May God bless you now and always. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. Thanks so much.