Serving Our Neighbors at St. Mary’s Food Pantry
On a given Thursday, members of the Order of Malta serve directly at St. Mary’s Food Pantry in Walnut Creek, offering food, care, and compassion to neighbors in need. The pantry is operated by St. Vincent de Paul of Contra Costa County, which has provided vital support to the community for over 50 years.
Timothy K. Powers, KM, Hospitaller of the Oakland Region of the Order of Malta, serves at the pantry alongside fellow Knights Greg Smith, KM, and Matthew Kemner, KM, Alison Yount, DM, the charity coordinator, and other Knights, Dames, Auxiliary members, and volunteers of the Order. The Order of Malta has been serving at St. Mary’s for three years.
Many of the individuals served are living on the margins — in nearby creeks, under freeways, or simply struggling to get by. They come to St. Mary’s for the basics: food for the week, and the knowledge that someone sees them and cares.
The scale of that need across our two counties is hard to overstate. According to the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano, one in eight people — and one in six children — in Contra Costa and Solano counties turn to the Food Bank for emergency and supplemental food. Last year the Food Bank distributed over 39 million pounds of food, enough to serve more than 79,000 households each month. Two-thirds of the food it distributes is fresh produce, protein, and dairy — the foods that matter most for growing kids and seniors.
St. Mary’s is one of more than 245 partner agencies the Food Bank works with, and it depends on two partnerships working together: the Food Bank supplying the food, and the Order of Malta Ministry Van — led by Timothy K. Powers, KM, with Dr. Michael Matly, KM, helping with the food pickups — making bi-weekly Tuesday trips to the Food Bank to pick it up and deliver it to St. Mary’s, keeping the shelves stocked for Thursday.
The partnership between the Order of Malta and St. Vincent de Paul is simple in shape and deep in effect: one organization that has fed this community for over half a century, and one that brings hands, a van, and volunteers to serve beside it — week after week, Thursday after Thursday.
Learn more about the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano at foodbankccs.org.
