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New Center to Help Feed Less Fortunate By Greg Horton OKLAHOMA CITY — On Friday, Sept. 9, St. Charles Borromeo Church opened its new, 2,000 square foot Dorothy Day Center. The center will be used for food distribution for economically disadvantaged Oklahoma City families. The official dedication will be Sunday, Nov 6. Archbishop Beltran plans to celebrate Mass at Saint Charles and later bless and dedicate the center. Located at 4909 N. State Street, the Dorothy Day Center is slightly east and south of the parish. Marcus Evans, chair of the parish council at St. Charles Borromeo, said the center was named for Dorothy Day, the founder, with Peter Maurin, of the Catholic Worker Move-ment, as a way of honoring her for her contribution to the faith. “We have a strong collaboration with the Oscar Romero Catholic Worker House, so we thought it would be fitting to name the new center after someone associated with that movement,” Evans said. The center was built with contributions from individuals, foundations, businesses, and a fund raiser held at Christmas in 2004. Margaret Phipps, the pastoral associate at St. Charles Borromeo, said the impetus to build the Dorothy Day Center came from a group of parishioners who participated in the Just Faith(r) course together a few years ago. According to the organization’s web site, www.justfaith.org, “JustFaith(r) is an extended justice education/formation program that provides an opportunity for parishioners to study and be formed by the justice tradition articulated by the Scriptures, the Church’s historical witness, and Catholic social teaching.” Linda Clark, the assistant to Margaret Phipps, took the course and is now certified to teach it. “The course provides instruction in the social justice teaching of Scripture, the Church, and Jesus’ words,” Clark said. “I think the group heard the call to help the poor, and Dorothy Day exemplified that call.” “I think the group decided that in order for them to be where they need to be by life’s end, they needed to do some real stuff,” Phipps said. Evans said that members of the group used to deliver food to about 25 families. They knew that there was a far greater need. “People need our help; we want to serve that need; it takes this building to do it,” Evans said. “You can serve 25 families out of a garage, but when you reach 250 to 300 families, you can’t do it that way anymore. The center gives us a legitimate place to store and distribute food so that we can get more donations.” Phipps said the center does not function like a food pantry. “Ten to 15 people will have access to it, but it isn’t open regular hours for people to stop by.” Instead, working in conjunction with the Romero House, the center will take referrals from churches and organizations. Food will be delivered to those who are in need. The center features a six foot by eight foot walk-in cooler and an eight foot by 10 foot walk-in freezer. Prior to opening the center, the food distribution was composed almost exclusively of non-perishable items. The center now allows for the storage and distribution of perishable food items. The Romero House does a monthly food distribution to 250 or more families. The sacking and organizing used to take place at the Romero House. That work will now happen at the Dorothy Day Center. The first monthly distribution was on Saturday, September 17. |