Press releases

St. Joseph runs food drive
for House of Hope

PRESS RELEASE DATE: FEB. 2, 2009

St. Joseph Catholic Church is conducting its annual food drive on behalf of House of Hope, urging parishioners and the public to bring non-perishable food items to the church on Feb. 7-8.

To collect the food, the House of Hope truck will be stationed in the parking lot of St. Joseph Church, 1200 SE 10th St., Stuart, from 3:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 7 and from 7 a.m. to noon on Feb. 8.

“The drive is just one example of how the church finds ways to reach out into the community at large to fulfill the needs of people in Martin County,” said Kathy Carmody, senior program manager at House of Hope.

Father Noel McGrath, the St. Joseph pastor, also serves on the House of Hope board of directors, and sees the needs that the agency fulfills every day throughout the year 

House of Hope is the largest provider of food to the hungry in Martin County. In 2008 the agency gave out more than 126 tons of food – the equivalent of more than 296,000 meals. One-third of this amount feeds hungry children.

In normal economic times, low-wage workers and fixed-income seniors depend on House of Hope Food Pantries to fill the gaps. During the past two years, however, more and more middle income workers whose hours have been reduced or eliminated completely are turning to House of Hope to make ends meet.

The St. Joseph food drive fills another gap – the time that exists between holiday food drives and the annual “Stamp Out Hunger” food drive run by the National Association of Letter Carriers in May.

Last year’s drive by St. Joseph’s collected 14,000 pounds of food.

Here are the types of food items that people can bring to the drive on Feb. 7-8 or to any House of Hope location on behalf of the drive at any time:

• Canned tomato products.

• Canned fruit.

• Canned vegetables.

• Soup.

• Beans.

• Canned milk.

• Canned meat, fish, chili.

• Cereal.

• Rice.

• Pasta.

House of Hope locations are:

• Stuart: 2484 SE Bonita St. Stuart, FL 34997

• Hobe Sound: 11760 SE Dixie Highway

• Indiantown: 15516 Osceola St.

• Jensen Beach: 1313 NE Jensen Beach Blvd.

For more information about House of Hope, call (772) 286-4673, or visit www.hohmartin.org.