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Jill Pioter

SVdP Cleveland Launches New Software

SVdP Cleveland Launches New Software 1266 914 SVDP USA

In an effort to facilitate the ability for its English and non-English-speaking clients to order and receive food, SVdP Cleveland has partnered with Hunger Network to implement a new software at its Brookside Hunger Center. Brookside gives individuals the option to select foods, creating a “shopping” experience. SmartChoice™, a web-based digital ordering system, allows neighbors in need to order food in their own language and customize their selections based upon individual dietary requirements.

Those visiting the center are able to select exactly what they prefer from SVDP’s menu of available food items by using a touchscreen. They will also soon be able to order at home and schedule a pick up. Designed to improve the overall food pantry experience, the software provides SVdP Cleveland with the ability to serve food insecure families who are unable to visit Brookside during its hours of operation.

This new system has many benefits, both for clients and the organization, according to Gary A. Sole, CEO of SVdP Cleveland. “For example, it promotes healthier eating and less waste, as people only order what they intend to consume,” he explained. “Because it reduces spoilage and offers choice with reduced space requirements, it maximizes our pantry’s resources and even streamlines our inventory management.”

SVdP Cleveland’s purchase of the software was made possible in part with funding from Community West Foundation, Sole added.

SVdP Cleveland collaborated with its partner agency, Hunger Network, to implement the software more efficiently. Hunger Network rolled out the service in 2022 at its own newly-opened pantry located in Cleveland’s MidTown Corridor. “This collaboration enables us to benefit from Hunger Network’s experience to ensure a seamless integration for our organization,” Sole explained.

The system has proven to be extremely successful at Hunger Network, said Julie M. Johnson, CEO.  “We fell in love with the software once we started looking into it because it provided customers with a dignified experience and allowed us to encourage them to learn about and select healthier food options.”

In operation since the mid-1960s, Brookside Hunger Center serves individuals and families within and surrounding Cleveland’s Clark-Fulton and Brooklyn Centre neighborhoods. It is one of seven main food pantries operated by the Society of St. Vincent de Paul that provide emergency food supplies (which include shelf staples, protein-rich meats, dairy and nutritious produce), hot meals, and more to food-insecure individuals and families throughout Northeast Ohio.

11-09-23 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders

11-09-23 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders 720 720 SVDP USA

A recent airline announcement at the boarding gate caught my attention. Passengers are no longer permitted to carry previously purchased alcohol on board to consume. Of course, the airline is still pleased to sell you some in your seat. A pilot seated next to me said that “too many passenger fights showing up on the Internet” was the driving force behind this new federal regulation. In that case, it might have been easier to ban cellphone videos rather than alcohol!

People who want to get drunk on an airplane will find a way to do so. They might have several drinks at that bar just a few steps from the gate. They might mix alcohol with that Coke or Sprite they just bought in the post-security gift shop. So long as they don’t appear too intoxicated when boarding, they can manage around the regulation. Therefore it’s the law-abiding good person, as so often happens with regs and legislation, who is the real disadvantaged patron of the rule, intentional or not.

Before we cry about this unfairness, let’s first look in our Vincentian mirror. Chances are, we have our own rules for serving people in need that were created because of one or two bad experiences. Remember that guy who came to us every month for rent assistance? That’s why we limit our help to (number) of times annually. Remember that family who asked for rent, then utilities, then food, then anything else not bolted down? That’s why we now have a financial limit on how much we can spend per family. The exception has sometimes driven our policy for everyone. In some Conferences, the people who needed the most help ultimately restricted the help we can give anyone.

In the interest of “fairness,” have we made life harder for some whom we seek to serve? In a quest to standardize operations and financial decisions for our volunteers, have we bypassed or totally cut out conversations about support around the Conference table? Have we forsaken the opportunity for personalized service, and even sound judgement calls? Do our policies not only demonstrate that we don’t trust those we serve, but also that we don’t trust our own members?

Any two Vincentians might disagree on how much or how often to help someone in need. The personal encounters we have in our Home Visits provide us with more information, and context, than can be provided in an application form or initial phone call. I hear all the time how someone came to a Conference for help, and we gave them more than what they requested, because they didn’t know the scope of our resources. Or perhaps they were embarrassed to ask, but our visiting team saw the need and asked if the Society could please help.

Please take time at an upcoming Conference or Council visit to review your giving and other policies. Perhaps dollar limits were set when your group had a different level of available resources. An annual assessment based on the past year’s experiences and economy might be a good idea. Do your rigid policies need to be only softer guidelines, subject to what we see and in individual cases and subsequent discernment?

Can policy be replaced in part with member training, so that everyone understands the need for some restraint but operates at a judgement level informed by experience and observations?

Can part of every Conference meeting be devoted to discussing those we serve, their needs and requests, and recommendations from our visitors for the Conference to decide together?

As a parent, would you ever limit your child to asking for help only once every year, or every quarter? Of course not. We might instead have to say No to some of their requests. The difference between the policy restriction and the individual response is in the formation and strength of our relationships. Help desks and nameless bureaucrats limit requests. Real people, especially Vincentians, listen whenever possible and seek solutions together even if money isn’t always available. We are the Face of Christ to those we serve. Would Christ ever tell us to come back and pray again for help in 6 or 12 months?

Resources are always limited. God’s love, however, is infinite. How can we as Society members do better to take both in consideration as we serve our neighbors?

Yours in Christ,
Dave Barringer
CEO

Contemplation: This Sweet Business

Contemplation: This Sweet Business 714 714 SVDP USA

“Let us go to the poor!” was the stirring declaration which founded the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. Challenged to demonstrate the good of the church in their modern world, our young founders could find no better way than to imitate Christ, who descended from heaven to visit us in our poverty. [Baunard, 416]

As Christ Himself explained, He “did not come to be served, but to serve”, to give…to visit. The one that hosts is the one in the place of honor; the one that visits is the servant. Our Rule emphasizes this aspect of our vocation explaining that visits to those in need “should be made in their environment” (their homes). [Rule, Part III, St. 8] But where are they? Where is “their environment” except in their home?

Of course, we know that “home” may be usually, but is certainly not always, a house or apartment. Poor prisoners cry out from their prisons, the poor elderly from assisted living facilities, and the poor homeless from the streets. They cry out to us if we have ears to hear them.

Similarly, poverty takes many forms. “Blessed are you who are poor”, Christ tells in the Gospel of Luke. “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” as Matthew recounts this teaching. Whatever the poverty in whatever the home, it is we who are the visitors, we who knock on the door, sit by the bedside, or go to the park bench. After all, as Pope Benedict XVI reminds us “one of the deepest forms of poverty a person can experience is isolation”, and that other kinds of poverty often are “born from isolation … by man’s basic and tragic tendency to close in on himself “. [Caritas in Veritate, 53] How better to alleviate material and spiritual poverty than to break the isolation which contributes to it?

Home visits,” the Rule continues, “are always made in pairs.” [Rule, Part III, St. 8] By visiting in pairs we continue the tradition begun when Christ sent forth His disciples in pairs. In this way, we begin to evangelize through our “wordless witness”, as two friends in Christ, sharing their time with a neighbor, showing them by our presence that they are not forgotten, letting them know we are Christians by our love, gathering as two with the neighbor as a third, and Christ is in our midst.

Christ offered a gift on His visit: His very life. Although the gifts we bring in the form of food, or money, are much more modest than that, those material gifts also are not really the point of the home visit. Though we may not give our lives as Christ did, Frédéric calls us to give them a little at a time, through every action we take, to “smoke night and day like perfume on the altar.” [Letter 90, to Curnier, 1837]

We are called invest much, to pour our hearts into each visit. And yet, as Frédéric tells us “He who brings a loaf of bread to the home of a poor man often brings back a joyful and comforted heart. Thus, in this sweet business of charity, the expenses are low, but the returns are high.” [Address in Lyon, 1837]

Contemplate

What is my investment in charity, and what is my return?

Recommended Reading

Mystic of Charity (especially Home Visits in the Vincentian Tradition)

09-28-2023 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders

09-28-2023 A Letter From Our Servant Leaders 1367 1520 SVDP USA

Dear Vincentian Friends,

This is my last Servant Leader column as your National Council President. It has been my privilege to have served you in this role for the past six years. Thank you for your support and prayers.

The columns I have written over these years have been reviewed and edited by my friend Ernie Stetenfeld, who succeeded me as CEO of the Madison Council. When I retired, I asked if he would continue to edit my writing, which he has done faithfully. I am grateful to him for that favor. When he would send the review copy back to me, he frequently commented on what he liked about the column and always provided a “track changes” version. Sometimes, I would ask what it was he liked since there were more red changes than the black original in his revisions, to which he responded that “it had good bones.” Thank you, Ernie; you made me look good.

Ernie is just one of a whole cast of Vincentians that I was privileged to serve with during my term. We had an excellent Board of Directors, and I am especially grateful for the work of the Executive Committee: Vice President Brian Burgess, Treasurer Jim Dodd, Secretary Guadalupe Sosa, and CEO David Barringer. In addition to the Board, we have been well served by our many committees and the staff at our National Office. As David Barringer pointed out in this column last week, in spite of having to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, we accomplished a lot in the past six years because of this great team.

Certainly, the next few years will be crucial to the future success of our organization. The Society in the United States is well-positioned to succeed under the leadership of John Berry and his newly appointed Board of Directors. I have confidence in his leadership and the ongoing guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Please use the tools we have made available so that we build upon a firm foundation. The most important of these resources are the Standards of Excellence. Continue to use them to be sure we have good governance of our Society and are following the best practices they detail. We also have dozens of excellent training materials available, as well as a revised Vincentian Pathway tool to help our members access the guidance they need most. Please use these materials; if you do, we will have a stronger organization — one better prepared to welcome new members and to serve our neighbors in need effectively and compassionately.

Some have asked what I will do with my newly acquired free time. I hope to enjoy having fewer commitments, less email and fewer meetings. As was announced at the National Assembly several weeks ago, however, our new International President General, Juan Manuel Gómez, has appointed me as the Vice President of the International Council General. I am grateful for his trust in me to contribute to the success of the International Council, which will involve continuing my work with international twinning and disaster aid. Beyond that, I suppose my work, like that of any vice president, will include “other duties as assigned.”

As I wrap up these six years, I look back on the importance of Vincentian friendship. The friendships I have found in the Society over 35 years have sustained and inspired me. Those friends are now spread all over the world. I hope your vocation in the Society is built on what is now very well-articulated in our new Mission Statement. We are: “A network of friends, inspired by Gospel values, growing in holiness and building a more just world through personal relationships with and service to people in need.”

This Mission Statement reveals the heart of how our founders understood the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. Living in separate cities four years after founding the Society, Frederic Ozanam wrote this to his friend and cofounder Auguste Le Taillandier: “As each of us grows older, may we also grow in friendship, piety, and zeal for good!”

That is also my parting wish for each of you, my friends: “As each of us grows older, may we also grow in friendship, piety, and zeal for good!”

Serviens in spe,
Ralph Middlecamp
National Council President

National Council Announces New Board of Directors

National Council Announces New Board of Directors 1200 1200 SVDP USA

Under the leadership of incoming National President John Berry, a new Board of Directors for the National Council of the U.S., Society of St. Vincent de Paul will take office beginning October 1. They are:

  • John Berry, National President
  • John Hallissy, First Vice President and Chair of the National Governance Committee
  • Kat Brissette, Second Vice President and National Vice President of Youth, Young Adults, and Emerging Leaders
  • Steve Zabilski, Second Vice President and Chair of the National Development and Communications Committee
  • Carrie Johnson-Robinson, National Secretary
  • Edward McCarthy, National Treasurer
  • Brian Burgess, Liaison to National Subsidiaries
  • Aldo Barletta, National Vice President of Vincentian Spiritual Growth and Enrichment
  • Pauline Manalo, National Vice President of Vincentian Programs and Services
  • Pamela Matambanadzo, National Vice President of Vincentian Friendship and Community
  •  Sean Myers, National Vice President of Membership and Leadership Development
  • Tom Pelger, National Vice President of Regional and Council Support
  • Isabel Darcy, National Vice President – Southeast Region
  • Judy Dietlein, National Vice President – Western Region
  • Mark Gordon, National Vice President – Northeast Region
  • Don Kany, National Vice President – Mountain Region
  • Paul Korkemaz, National Vice President – Eastern Region
  • Chuck Korte, National Vice President – Midwest Region
  • Michael Pazzaglini, National Vice President – South Central Region
  • Bat Seymour, National Vice President – Mideast Region
  • Susan Wiland, National Vice President – North Central Region
  • Tom Abbate, CEO Task Force
  • Claudia Ramirez, CEO Task Force

Please pray for our servant leaders!

John Berry Becomes 14th National President

John Berry Becomes 14th National President 1024 683 SVDP USA

At a Mass at the St. Louis Cathedral Basilica, John Berry of Atlanta, Georgia, was installed as the 14th National President of the National Council of the United States, Society of St. Vincent de Paul. His six-year term in office will begin October 1, 2023.

An experienced senior executive and tireless advocate for people in poverty, Berry served as Chief Executive Officer for SVdP Georgia for 14 years before retiring in 2020. In his work there, he championed national, state, and local efforts to fight poverty, dependence, and need. In September 2020, he founded Berry Consulting Solutions, LLC; consulting experts in Nonprofit Board Governance, Organizational Dynamics, Strategic Planning, and Development & Fundraising.

During his 14 years at SVdP Georgia, Berry led an organization that impacted poverty by hundreds of millions of dollars. Berry is a vocal advocate at the National and State levels, working with Congress and the Georgia State Legislature on issues related to children, families, the poor, and those at the margins.

Berry’s role at SVdP Georgia followed his successful 25-year business and federal government career, beginning as an engineer in the commercial nuclear power industry and leading to senior executive management positions with Fortune 100 companies in the nuclear power, environmental engineering, and high technology sectors, which included extensive international experience in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.

An active member of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul since 1996, Berry’s presidency will focus on growing and expanding the Society’s membership, with a special focus on diverse communities, youth, and young adults. He wants to create an inclusive Society that provides opportunities for everyone to grow in holiness and friendship through service to those in need.

“As National President of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul,” he says, “I will work tirelessly with all our Conferences and Councils to ensure that we remain a vibrant and relevant ministry service those who need our hands, our voice, and our love.”

2023 National Assembly Closing Banquet

2023 National Assembly Closing Banquet 1024 683 SVDP USA

2023 National Assembly Day 4 Highlights

2023 National Assembly Day 4 Highlights 1024 683 SVDP USA

2023 National Assembly Youth Poverty Simulation

2023 National Assembly Youth Poverty Simulation 1024 683 SVDP USA

2023 National Assembly Host City Night

2023 National Assembly Host City Night 1024 683 SVDP USA

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