St. Monica's Catholic Church quietly Provides Thanksgiving Food and Supplies for All Comers

St Monica's Catholic Church couldn't provide its annual Thanksgiving dinner for those in need, due to the worldwide Coronavirus pandemic and the Los Angeles County Health shutdown.

So instead, Wednesday on the grounds of St Monica's High School, guests in need were given a boxed Thanksgiving dinner, warm clothes and toiletries. Their temperatures were taken, hand sanitizers were supplied and guests were requested to stand 6' apart.

The event took place on Wednesday afternoon at St. Monica's on Lincoln and California. A line of people went round the block. There were mother's with baby strollers, and older people.

Not everyone in line was visibly homeless. In fact, only a minority of them were homeless people.

"During the first full months of the pandemic, April through July, 42% of low-income households in L.A. County - and 26% of all households in the county - experienced at least one instance of food insecurity. By comparison, during all 12 months of 2018, 27% of low-income households struggled with food insecurity," said USC in a report.

"Nearly 1 in 4 residents have suffered from food insecurity since the start of the pandemic," says LA County. It offers a web portal to help with those who are uncertain how they will pay for their next meal.

Local news stations are reporting that with the lockdowns, restaurants and other businesses closing, and Congress failing since September to pass some sort of relief bill, that many more families are suffering food insecurity. By some estimates, as many as 4 million in LA County, 40% of the population, now suffers from food insecurity.

Reportedly this group includes college graduates and business owners; people who never imagined they would have needed help. 2020 has been full of surprises, many of them not pleasant. But we can all hope for better times next year, with a vaccine on the way this Spring.

A Jewish prayer says “Once I was young and now I’m old, but never have I seen a righteous man without food, nor his children in the streets begging for bread.”

The only plausible explanation is that the psalmist opened his heart and his pantry to the poor, as people of good faith continue to do today.