Feeding the hungry one family at a time

At a time when emphasis is on buying, making a profit and spreading holiday cheer, a group of volunteers in Cape Girardeau quietly demonstrates its faith by helping those whose season is less than jolly.

The FISH Volunteers of Cape Girardeau help feed those who have fallen on hard times and are hungry.

The group got its start in the early 1980s when people would seek help at area churches, said FISH board member Gil Degenhardt.

"Particularly when the pastor's residence was next door to the church," he said.

FISH began in the basement of the Maple Avenue Methodist Church. Today, area churches have combined into an ecumenical outreach effort that supports a food pantry at 106 S. Sprigg St.

This year, FISH has served 2,538 people, according to the Rev. Paul Kabo of First Presbyterian Church and president of FISH.

The effort is all volunteer. No one who works at the food pantry or serves on the board of directors receives a salary. FISH is not supported by grant money.

Kabo said more than 20 churches regularly support FISH through donations. During the Christmas season, groups will gather cans of food to bring to the food pantry. Grocery stores give from their shelves. The Department of Conservation donates ground venison. Panera Bread Co. gives leftover bread to FISH.

"Jesus said bread is the basis of life, 'I am the bread of life,' and here is Panera Bread providing bread for people to eat," Kabo said.

Some people donate cash, and another 60 individuals volunteer, taking phone orders or working in the pantry and filling the grocery bags.

When a family needs food, someone from the family can call FISH at 334-0207 and place an order. The FISH volunteers will ask for Social Security numbers, the size of the family and how many children are in it. They fill an order based on the size of the family. FISH does not deliver; groceries can be picked up at the FISH food pantry.

Vickie Naeger has bagged groceries at the food pantry for about 16 years.

"We give them enough to last two or three weeks," she said. "It's a lot of groceries."

Each household is given canned vegetables and fruit, soups and chili, canned meat and tuna, hot and cold cereal, crackers and bread, Jell-O and pudding mixes, instant potatoes, dry milk, hot dogs and ground beef -- and when they're available, other items like cake mixes, cleaning supplies and toilet paper and soap.

"We operate by the grace of God," Degenhardt said.

The organization's name comes from an understanding of Christian history, Kabo said.

"Back in the Roman Empire time, the first and second century, a group of followers of Jesus Christ discovered hostility on the parts of the Romans," he said. "If they needed to ask strangers where worship services were, they would draw a symbol of a fish or write the Greek name for fish. All these centuries, fish has stood for a confession of faith."

Feeding the hungry, Kabo said, is one way of expressing that faith.

"It's something that goes on all year," he said "We take it very, very seriously."

lredeffer@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 160