The Enterprise Helping Hands Fund helps organizations each year like St. Vincent de Paul Society, which operates two food pantries at Brockton churches.
BROCKTON — For families transitioning from Cape Verde to the United States, a vastly different economy can be one of the biggest adjustments.
And that's one of the main reasons the St. Vincent de Paul Society at St. Edith Stein operates a food pantry, to make sure its parishioners have the basic necessities each week.
Joseph Lapointe has been the society president at the East Main Street parish since 2011, but the pantry opened back in 1935.
And two weeks ago was the pantry's busiest week ever, providing 61 families with a week's worth of food.
"Trinity Catholic Academy next door recently had a food drive for us, but we are pretty much wiped out of all the food that was donated," Lapointe said last week, ahead of a large delivery. "It was our busiest week ever."
On average, the pantry provides food for about 110 families each month, meaning they served more than double the usual amount of families that busy week.
"We have about 2,000 parishioners now and about 1,200 of them are from the Cape Verdean community – a lot of them newly arrived," Lapointe said. "The food we give to families is about a week's worth, but for some is just a supplement to food stamps or another source."
The pantry is one of many non-profit organizations who have received money from The Enterprise's Helping Hands Fund since its inception in the early 1990s. The newspaper has given out more than $1 million to social service agencies that directly help people in need.
"A couple years ago, when we had that really bad winter, we used all the money we got for home heating oil," Lapointe said. "But, last year, our funds were really low, so all that money went directly to buy food at the Greater Boston Food Bank."
On Thursday, Lapointe picked up nearly 2,000 pounds worth of food from the bank after the shelves were nearly emptied as a result of the 61 families needing help a couple weeks ago.
"A lot of times, during this time of the year, there is a certain need," Lapointe said. "Some people are looking for extra help because they want to buy stuff for the holidays."
Lapointe suspects the unusually high need recently was because the Catholic church was having sign-ups that Sunday for free Christmas dinners.
"We have to put our order in at the beginning of November for Christmas dinners," he said. "We may have had families get help at the pantry who came to sign up for the dinner."
The pantry is open each Sunday and available to parishioners – as well as anyone from the Brockton-area community. The St. Vincent de Paul Society at St. Edit Stein covers most of the city, aside from the southeast section, which is covered by the society's pantry at Christ the King Church.
"We help any of our parishioners," Lapointe said. "But if you aren't a member of our parish, you don't have to be Catholic to come. If you live in Brockton or the geographic area we cover, we will provide food to you."
