St. Vincent de Paul gives support to community

The local Society of St. Vincent de Paul, a major part of the community outreach of Notre Dame Catholic Church, has been in business serving the needy in the Kerrville area for the past 69 years. The program began in 1953 and has been at its current location on Broadway for 21 years.

“The program started with eight people and now we have 80 volunteers involved in the three-part program we provide to the community,” said Mike Henke, conference president.

Henke said St. Vincent de Paul offers three distinctive programs for persons who need help, the thrift store, food pantry and a financial assistance office.

“We partner with the San Antonio Food Bank and they deliver food to us two or three times a month. We are able to order food from them if we pay for the transport,” Henke said.

Henke said they are back to pre-COVID levels of activity in all three areas of the ministry, but many of their volunteers have not returned, so the thrift store hours have been reduced to only three hours a day, three days a week.

“The thrift store, St. Vinny’s on Broadway, is our main source of funding for our local assistance activities, so without the income from the store we have less funds to work with. We get a lot of our donations to the thrift store from parishioners from Notre Dame, but we welcome donations from the community. We have a limited ability to pick up donations, but we can accept donations from the public at the store when we are open,” Henke added.

When St. Vincent de Paul first opened their thrift store the Hospice thrift shop was next door which drew more people to the area. Henke hopes as more volunteers are available and the hours of operation are increased that more shoppers will find their way to the thrift shop in the future.

“We also have a lot of people who stop by after they shop at the Produce Barn nearby on Wednesdays,” Henke said.

Henke said the biggest challenge for the volunteers is sorting the donations and then pricing them before moving them into the retail area of the thrift store.

“People are good to us in terms of donations. We have a lot of dedicated volunteers who spend a lot of time in the thrift store and the food pantry,” Henke said.

Late last week a van arrived packed full of food donated by students at Notre Dame school who held a grade-level competition to collect donations for families during the Thanksgiving holiday season.

“Our neighbors in need are allowed to receive help from the food bank twice each month and we have a large cooler to store perishable items when we receive them,” Henke said.

The food pantry is a participant in the Hunters for the Hungry program locally which allows hunters to donate their deer meat to the food bank through local processing plants during hunting season.

To qualify for the food pantry benefit a family or individual is asked to meet one of three requirements.

• The family should have members on Medicaid, SNAP (food stamps) or other government program;

• Meet a certain income level based on a state-based criteria which varies depending on the number of people in the household; or

• Be in a crisis situation created by such events as a loss of employment, loss of the breadwinner in the family, or other situation in which they need immediate intervention.

St. Vincent de Paul also offers financial assistance for utility bills, prescriptions, car insurance, property taxes and other emergency costs, but a recipient can only get financial help once in a three-month period. Utility bills qualifying for help include electric, natural gas, water or propane.

In October 2022 there were 441 households who received help from the food pantry representing 1,533 persons. A total of 34,000 pounds of food were distributed during that one month.

“We paid out $36,000 in October for utility bills. The recipient brings us the bill and we pay directly to the provider, not to the individual,” Henke said.

He said that KPUB has designated St. Vincent de Paul to administer their “change for charity” program where KPUB customers are asked to round up their utility bills each month and the funds are used for persons who need help with their electric bills.

“We qualify the people and approve vouchers that we send to KPUB and then send additional money from St. Vincent, as needed, and then they credit the funds to the person’s outstanding bill,” Henke said. In October KPUB paid out $9,000 from their “change for charity” program.

Help is also available from St. Vincent de Paul funding for customers of Bandera Electric Co-op and Central Texas Electric Co-op.

“We have had people from as far away as Rocksprings come to us for help with utilities,” Henke added.

Henke added he wanted to thank local foundations who have been very generous the past few years, especially during COVID when the thrift store was closed and when church donations were down.

“We are very grateful to the foundations and the individuals who kept us going during difficult times,” Henke added.

St. Vincent de Paul

The story of St. Vincent de Paul began with his birth in April 1581 to a peasant family in the French village of Pouy. His early education was provided by the Franciscan priests in his town. He was hired as a tutor for a nearby wealthy family and used the money he earned to study theology at the University of Toulose. He was ordained into the priesthood at the age of 19 and was allegedly captured at sea in 1605 by Barbary pirates and sold into slavery. Two years later he escaped and made his way to Rome to continue his studies, but returned to Paris to serve his church until his death in 1660.  He co-founded the Daughters of Charity, the first non-cloistered religious institute for women devoted to charitable works. He went on to found the Congregation of the Mission, known as Lazarists or Vincentians.  St Vincent de Paul is the patron saint of charitable societies. He is known for preaching missions to the peasants in France and for educating and training Catholic clergy, but he is best known for his charity and compassion for the poor.

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul was formed in 1833 in Paris. Members are known as “Vincentians” and are men and women who offer person-to-person services to neighbors in need. Today the Society of St. Vincent de Paul has more than 800,000 members worldwide in more than 150 countries with 1.5 million volunteers. It is estimated that the society members in the United States serve more than five million people annually.

Persons wishing to volunteer with the food pantry or thrift store should call (830) 896-6878 or stop by the location at 1145 Broadway on Monday, Wednesday or Friday between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.

For more information on the food pantry or other help available thru St. Vincent de Paul call (830) 896-6878 or go to their website: svdpndkerr.org or email www.svdpkerr@hctc.net