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Daystar Hope Center

Elks Lodge opens drive-thru food pantry

June 16, 2020 By Kathy Steele

What Donna Moyer misses most is the children filing into the cafeteria, laughing, playing and sitting down to enjoy lunch.

“We have a big party,” said Moyer, past Exalted Ruler at the Elks Lodge 2731, in Zephyrhills. “It’s a big deal. This year with all this extra nonsense, we can’t.”

COVID-19 upended the typical Feed the Kids Program, a free summer lunch and literacy program.

A young girl wrote a handmade thank you card to the volunteers who distribute free lunches at the Elks Lodge. (Courtesy of Donna Moyer)

This year, Moyer, and 10 to 15 volunteers, wave to children in the backseat of cars as their parents pull into a drive-thru food pantry organized at the lodge, at 6851 Wire Road.

Five days a week from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., the volunteers hand out about 100 free lunches prepared daily at Zephyrhills’ restaurant, Tubby’s Q and Smokehouse.

The restaurant is the first participant in Operation Feed Pasco, a collaboration between the Pasco County Commission, United Way of Pasco County, Thomas Promise Foundation and the Elks Lodge.

The initiative has a dual purpose: To bolster area food pantries and help restaurants that took a financial loss from the COVID-19 shutdown.

A nonprofit, Harper Valley Son’s Food Pantry based in Wesley Chapel, is independently providing boxes of vegetables, pre-cooked meat, fruit and milk to parents who come to the Elks Lodge.

Joe Simmons, left, executive director of the Thomas Promise Foundation, and Robert ‘Cowboy’ Harper, founder of Harper Valley Son’s Food Pantry, discuss food distribution standing beside a food truck Harper drove to the Elks Lodge. (Kathy Steele)

On Wednesdays, the Elks Lodge also gives out bags filled with craft activities and books to boost reading skills.

On Fridays, Thomas Promise provides meals to carry families through the weekend.

Thomas Promise’s mission is to feed hungry children in Pasco. It typically serves 1,600 students in more than 25 schools, but this year the need is greater because of COVID-19.

The nonprofit is a longtime supporter of the Elks Lodge, so coming together for Operation Feeding Pasco was a natural fit.

“I immediately thought of Elks Lodge because that’s exactly what we do,” said Joe Simmons, executive director of Thomas Promise.

When Moyer realized the Elks Lodge members had to reinvent an on-site program now in its sixth year, she stayed up nights wondering if they could pull it off.

But, Moyer said, “We just kind of got it all together.”

The Elks Lodge is one of many nonprofits and food banks that is helping families that are struggling to pay bills, put food on the table and stay safe during the pandemic.

Even as businesses begin to reopen in Florida, and more people are venturing out to shops and restaurants — a great need for help continues.

Before COVID-19, Feeding Tampa Bay distributed food in its 10-county region to about 600,000 “food insecure” individuals. Since the shutdown, that number has more than doubled, to about 1.3 million.

“The need is continuing to climb,” said Shannon Hannon Oliviero, external affairs officer for Feeding Tampa Bay.

Volunteers Harriett Hinton, left, and Ilene Nutting put together craft bags. Nutting, a former day care worker, organizes the giveaway for the Elks Lodge. (Kathy Steele)

The nonprofit began opening drive-thru food banks, known as “mega-pantries,” in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Manatee, Polk and Pasco counties.

One mega-pantry now operates at Pasco High School in Dade City.

Volunteers with Make a Difference, a nonprofit in Dade City, distribute food supplied by Feeding Tampa Bay every Thursday from 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., at 36850 State Road 52 in Dade City.

Oliviero said an early survey completed after the shutdown revealed about 70% of those coming to food banks were doing so for the first time in their lives.

Many had either lost their jobs or are on furlough, she said.

She said the help will continue.

“We’re going to be here for as long as needed. That’s what we’re here for,” Oliviero said.

About 700 food bags were given away at the first drive-thru at Pasco High, said Larry Guilford, founder of Make a Difference.

“One woman cried while driving through,” he said. “That’s when we know we’re doing the right thing. That’s telling us it’s needed.”

Volunteers bagged up lunch meals prepared by Tubby Q’s and Smokehouse, a Zephyrhills restaurant participating in Operation Feed Pasco. (Kathy Steele)

The same community spirit abounds at the Elks Lodge. Volunteers arrive around 7:30 a.m. Duties include bagging the days’ meals, snacks and crafts. On some days they also prepare frozen meals, such as pancakes and sausage, meat subs and spaghetti. Those are kept in the freezers for use as needed, said Moyer.

On average about 100 meals are distributed for the summer program, but on one recent day about 150 meals were handed out, she said.

“Thank you,” is the phrase of the day, as parents and children accept the food bags.

“It’s an amazing resource,” said Kimberly Mahon, who drove through with her children, ages 3 and 7.

Brad Odell, a Wesley Chapel High School teacher, drove through with his family — but also took home food packages for neighbors unable to leave their home.

“It helps me,” he said, adding, “but I have neighbors that are elderly, and a woman with five children. I try to help out as many people as possible. It makes me feel good.”

Area food banks/pantries
Here is a partial list of food banks operating in Pasco. (Please call ahead to be sure the pantry is open and to find out its hours of operation):

Food Pantry at Emmanuel Ministries
12639 Candlewood Drive, Dade City
For information on hours, call (813) 713-0305.

Farmworker’s Self-Help
37240 Lock St., Dade City
Provides fresh fruit, meats, dairy and more
For information, call (352) 567-1432.

Neighborhood Care Center
5140 Sixth St., Zephyrhills
This nonregional, nonprofit offers free groceries and hot meals
For information, call (813) 780-6822.

Life Community Center
6542 Applewood St., Wesley Chapel
For information, call (813) 994-0685.

Christian Social Services
5514 Land O’ Lakes Blvd., Land O’ Lakes
For information, call (813) 995-0088.

Suncoast Harvest Food Bank
5829 Ehren Cutoff Road, Land O’ Lakes
Open third Saturday of the month
For information, call (813) 929-0200.

St. Vincent De Paul
Serves various locations in Pasco
For information, call the district office at (727) 868-8160.

Father and Son Love Ministries
21418 Carson Drive, Land O’ Lakes
Operates a food pantry on Tuesdays, from noon to 2 p.m.; Fridays, from noon to 3 p.m.; and on Sundays, starting at 12:30 p.m.
For information, call (813) 383-8410.

Helping Hands, a food pantry at Atonement Lutheran Church
29617 State Road 54, Wesley Chapel
Call (813) 756-8866 to find out when it is open.

Daystar Hope Center
15512 U.S. 301, Dade City
Call (352) 523-0844 to find out when it is open.

Published June 17, 2020

Filed Under: Local News Tagged With: Brad Odell, Christian Social Services, COVID-19, Dade City, Daystar Hope Center, Donna Moyer, Elks Lodge 2731, Emmanuel Ministries, Farmworkers Self-Help, Father and Son Love Ministries, Feed the Kids Program, Feeding Tampa Bay, Harper Valley Son's Food Pantry, Helping Hands, Joe Simmons, Kimberly Mahon, Larry Guilford, Life Community Center, Make a Difference, Neighborhood Care Center, Operation Feed Pasco, Pasco County Commission, Pasco High School, Shannon Hannon Oliviero, St. Vincent De Paul, State Road 52, Suncoast Harvest Food Bank, Thomas Promise Foundation, Tubby's Q and Smokehouse, United Way of Pasco County, Wesley Chapel, Wesley Chapel High School, Wire Road, Zephyrhills

Holy Name Monastery: A tranquil place on a hill

April 17, 2019 By Special to The Laker/Lutz News

Funny how a place can be both otherworldly and so much a part of this world.

Holy Name Monastery is like that. It’s a peaceful place where Benedictine Sisters of Florida rise before the birds are up to pray quietly in their chapel, then return for daily Mass and more common prayers throughout the day.

A ribbon drapes a wooden cross beside vegetables growing in Sister Miriam’s aquaponic garden. (Karen Haymon Long)

Then, rather than sit idly enjoying their monastic peacefulness, they head out into the world – to a childhood center, a thrift store and food bank, to chamber of commerce meetings and to an aquaponic garden that produces so many vegetables they sell some to Benedetto’s Ristorante, a popular Pasco County restaurant.

The 16 nuns who call this monastery home use the Internet, read newspapers, watch TV news and invite in experts who inform them about political candidates and topics, such as human trafficking.

And, “we definitely vote,’’ says Prioress Roberta Bailey.

Sister Mary Clare Neuhofer, prioress before Sister Roberta, says they are well aware of the stark divisions in our country today.

“Our response is to pray for a just solution and for our leaders, so that they will have the guidance they need to make just decisions for the good of the people,” she says.

Many of the sisters write to lawmakers in Florida and Washington D.C., about peace, justice, the death penalty and other issues that concern them.

Sister Mary Clare Neuhofer joined the monastery in 1956, fresh out of high school.

They stay busy reaching out to help those in need, whether it be the homeless, the hungry, spiritual searchers, or those who just need a friend.

Because they are a community of sisters, they pool their wages into a common account and are given monthly allowances of $70 for clothes, shoes or whatever they may want to buy. They haven’t worn the restrictive, long black habits since the 1960s, but instead prefer slacks, tops and comfortable shoes, since they always have someplace to go, someone to help.

One sister serves as director at Daystar Hope Center in Dade City, the thrift store and food bank, while four of her sisters and a crew of other volunteers help run the operation.

Two other sisters teach at Sacred Heart Early Childhood Center in nearby Saint Joseph. Another sister is a data analyst at Saint Leo University, across the street from the monastery. Another works at an area assisted living center, where one of their sisters lives.

Others, like Sister Donna — who is famous for her homemade rolls and cookies — feed Habitat for Humanity volunteers at their worksites.

Sister Roberta Bailey is Holy Name Monastery’s prioress who says, ‘there’s no retirement when you are a sister.’

Many of the sisters host monthly music concerts and retreats in a wing of their monastery built in 2017 to meet the demand for retreats.

Asked how many retreats they host a year, Sister Mary Clare laughs and says, “That’s impossible for me to answer.”

There are too many and too many kinds to keep track.

Some are for big groups, some for just one person. Some are for Roman Catholics like themselves. Others are nondenominational or for Episcopalians, or members of other faiths. Some retreats are silent, except for meals. Some are not.

Some attendees stay in one of the retreat wing’s 10 hotel-like double rooms at a rate of $45 a night, or $75 for room and meals. Others go home at night.

The sisters offer spiritual counseling and days of reflection they direct themselves. Some groups direct their own retreats. Either way, guests are welcomed to walk around the grounds, sit in the rose garden, take a nature trail or peruse books in the monastery’s library.

Individuals on retreat “immerse themselves into our lives,” says Sister  Roberta. “They eat meals with us, pray with us.”

The Benedictine Cross on the front of the monastery.

Sister Mary Clare adds: “If they want to take a nap, they take a nap, and some of them take naps as soon as they get here.”

It’s easy to see why. Cellphones are only allowed in certain places. Signs remind: “Quiet, please, in hallways,’’ and many areas are softly lit or full of comforting natural light. Talk of politics is discouraged at meals, reason enough for some people to flock here on retreat.

Noise and traffic in the outside world can be so intrusive, Sister Roberta says. When retreaters leave, “They say, ‘I forget until I come here how impossible it is to stop and think about God, and to think about life and how I want to live it.’”

Some visit for other reasons: During Hurricane Irma in September of 2017, the sisters housed 18 people who fled the storm.

Day in and day out, the sisters take turns serving meals, doing the dishes and performing other needed chores. They come from all sorts of backgrounds and range in age. The youngest is in her mid-50s; the oldest was Sister Helen Lange, who was 105 when she died on March 18.

Sister Miriam Cosgrove loves working in the aquaponic gardens at Holy Name Monastery so much she calls it play instead of work.

Sister Roberta, who has short, wispy gray hair, blue eyes and a sweet pixie face, was just 16 in 1953 when she moved from DeLand to St. Leo to attend high school at Holy Name Academy, run by the Benedictine Sisters of Florida. She joined them as a nun in 1957, calling her decision “a call from God.”

She is proud that she started the first accredited Montessori school in Florida in 1970 and served as principal of St. Anthony Catholic Elementary School in nearby San Antonio for 15 years.

She serves on Saint Leo University’s board of trustees, a chamber of commerce board, on every Holy Name Monastery committee, plus, she is always available to her fellow sisters.

Asked if she has ever not worked, she smiles and says, “No, I’ve always been involved. There’s no retirement when you are a sister.’’

Sister Mary Clare has her own long history of serving as a Benedictine Sister. The middle child of 11 who grew up on a chicken farm in Saint Joseph, she had just graduated from Holy Name Academy in 1956 when she followed her older sister into the monastery. Before that, she hadn’t considered it, but was encouraged to join by friends and family.

“When I entered the monastery, I felt at home and wondered why I hadn’t wanted to do this,” says Sister Mary Clare, who has gray eyes, short reddish brown hair and a ready smile.

Vegetables from Sister Miriam’s garden feed the nuns and some are sold to Benedetto’s Ristorante Italiano in Pasco County.

Over the years, after college, she taught elementary students in Catholic schools in Jacksonville Beach, Sarasota and North Miami, then ran the campus ministry at Saint Leo College, which is now Saint Leo University. Afterward, she was the college’s acting dean of women, then director of residential life. In 1988, she resigned to take a sabbatical and travel, then returned to the  monastery, where she became the treasurer of the community, then the prioress.

Now, she serves on many monastery committees, including music and prayer, she’s an organist, helps with retreats, coordinates hospitality and takes part in other house missions, as well as serving on the local board of Catholic Charities.

The Benedictine Sisters, she says, were not formed to do “any particular work, such as teaching, nursing or working with the poor. We are free to do many types of work.’’

Sister Miriam Cosgrove, who joined the monastery at 18, chose gardening after dedicating more than 40 years to teaching and guidance counseling in elementary schools. In the nine years since “retirement,” she has developed a prosperous aquaponic garden that produces eggplant, lettuce, squash, cabbage and many other types of vegetables.

She also tends schools of Red Nile tilapia whose waste is changed by “good bacteria” into nitrates that fertilize her plants. Schoolchildren sometimes visit and others, too, and the sisters eat her vegetables at mealtime. Sometimes, they even eat her tilapia.

Sister Tracey Adams calls herself a ‘baby sister,’ since she only joined the monastery last June.

Fit and tan and sporting camouflage cargo shorts, a white top and straw hat, she works hard in her garden, but doesn’t seem to consider it work at all.

“I don’t work. I play,’’ she says, laughing. “It’s not work if you love it.”

She relishes the peacefulness of her garden and monastic life.

“People who come here on retreat say how peaceful it is. And, when they leave, they say, ‘This is exactly what I needed. I’ll be back.’”

Sister Tracey Adams, whose brown eyes are the same color as her hair,  calls herself “a baby sister,” since she only joined the sisters last June. She came to the monastery from St. Petersburg, where she was a hospice nurse.

She says she had health problems and felt a desire to live simply, so after a road trip alone that took her to 22 states, she stopped by the monastery, which she heard about from her priest back home.

“I was on a mission to find what God wanted for the next portion of my life, she says.

She stayed with them one night, then another. Then, returned every month for a year.

“It was always hard to leave,” she says. So she became a volunteer, then an affiliate, then a postulate and now she’s a novice.

“I found a lot of peace here,” she says. She uses her nursing skills, takes care of the rose bushes “and I love to wash dishes, so I do that,” she laughs. She’s on the peace and justice and hospitality committees, and spends some of her time reading and studying.

“Like the Army, we try to be all we can be,” she says. “I may not be able to help’’ people on the other side of the globe. “But, I’m praying for them.’’

The Benedictine Sisters of Florida’s Holy Name Monastery is at 12138 Wichers Road, St. Leo. Contact (352) 588-8320 or BenedictineSistersOfFl.org.

By Karen Haymon Long

Published April 17, 2019

Filed Under: Top Story Tagged With: Benedetto's Ristorante, Benedictine Sisters of Florida, Catholic Charities, Dade City, Daystar Hope Center, Episcopalians, Habitat for Humanity, Holy Name Academy, Holy Name Monastery, Mary Clare Neuhofer, Miriam Cosgrove, Roberta Bailey, Roman Catholics, Sacred Heart Early Childhood Center, Saint Joseph, Saint Leo University, San Antonio, St. Anthony Catholic Elementary School, Tracey Adams, Wichers Road

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