When Father Michael Orlowsky was asked to put an announcement for the Catholic Charities Ball into the bulletin of his Madison County parish last summer, he said no. People in the Our Lady of the Blue Ridge community were hungry, and a ball wasn’t exactly a top priority. Joayn Bahr, the ball committee member on the other end of the line, listened carefully. Then she got to work.
With the help of fellow St. James the Apostle parishioner Rosanne Arnold, Bahr got to work organizing deliveries of food to the Madison parish and the community beyond. Backed by Catholic Charities, these efforts turned into a program called Christ House on Wheels, a mobile spin-off of the Alexandria shelter that delivers anything and everything to people in the Arlington Diocese.
Catholic Charities doesn’t have a big presence in rural parts of the diocese, said Steve Luteran, director of Catholic Charities. To make up for that, “if people can’t get to us, we’ll try to get to them.”
The program was dubbed Christ House on Wheels for recognition purposes.
“People know the name of Christ House, so that was a natural name to give it,” Bahr said. “The wheels part just tells people it goes out to where it’s needed and it’s not just Northern Virginia.”
Summers in particular are times of angst for parents in rural communities who depend on government-supported schools to help feed their children breakfast and lunch, said Ruth Kulick, a parishioner at Our Lady of the Blue Ridge and liaison between Christ House on Wheels and the parish.
When school ends, so do the meals, and “the children are hungry,” she said.
To fill in this summertime gap, Christ House on Wheels made three deliveries both last summer and this, dropping off food collected by Northern Virginia parishioners.
“The thing that started this was Father Orlowsky’s deep concern for these kids, many of (whom) aren’t even in his parish,” Bahr said. “But he just knows what’s going on down there and these kids are hungry.”
Extra food in the summer relieves some of the pressure for the parents.
“This gives them the choice of not whether to pay the electric bill or buy food,” Bahr said. “They can go ahead and pay the electric bill. Basic stuff, but things we take for granted.”
Besides food, Christ House on Wheels delivers clothing, prescription medication, school supplies — anything that is needed. In the last year they have made multiple drops to impoverished counties, including one drop with Christmas gifts.
“The response from Northern Virginia has been completely open-handed and open-hearted,” Kulick said. “When I call, they respond.”
St. Andrew Parish in Clifton, St. Veronica Parish in Chantilly and St. Bernadette Parish in Springfield have all had a hand in collecting food items from a very specific list created by Kulick: nothing in glass so the kids can’t break it; foods high in protein; and canned fruits, which children are more likely to eat than vegetables.
With the help of Northern Virginia parishioners, 150 to 200 individuals a month are getting fed.
“We deliver every can of food,” Kulick said.
And by “every can,” she really means every can. The first time Bahr arrived with her delivery, she was shocked.
“We walked into this pantry, and I mean, I couldn’t believe it,” Bahr said. “There wasn’t a can of soup on the shelf. There was nothing.”
As a result, Bahr and Arnold are committed to collecting food in any way possible.
“Can’t shop?” Bahr asked. “We’ll do it for you.”
After all the food is collected, it’s driven down to the parish in need to be distributed to families. These “direct deliveries” specifically target those families that Kulick knows, through a variety of sources, are the poorest.
“We wanted to make sure that who we were feeding really were the most hungry,” Kulick said.
The fathers whose families are benefiting from the food have a hand in unloading and making the deliveries.
“They have quite a bit of ownership and empowerment,” Kulick said. “Nobody talks about where it’s coming from; nobody really cares. They just want the food.”
“We’ve never gone down there when we haven’t had a ton of people to help us,” Bahr said. “It’s so heartwarming to see how … they’re so grateful for it.”
Madison County isn’t the only place in the diocese that needs donations. Bahr made a drop of food at St. John the Baptist Church in Front Royal after Father Edward Hathaway accepted Christ House on Wheels’ offer for help. And earlier this summer Christ House on Wheels delivered appliances and clothing to families whose homes were being worked on during WorkCamp.
Getting youths involved in this type of ministry is a goal for Luteran.
“It raises their awareness about poverty in the outlying areas of our diocese,” he said.
Bahr said this experience has opened her eyes to the mysterious ways of God.
“It amazed me that when you’re in one section of Catholic Charities if you leave your eyes and ears open you can see how you can help another section.”

Gretchen R. Crowe can be reached at gcrowe@catholicherald.com.

(c) Copyright 2007 by Arlington Catholic Herald