Editor’s note: The following is reprinted with permission from the Dodge City Daily Globe.

Nearly every family of St. Andrew’s Catholic Parish in Wright, donated a large bag of groceries -- 90 of them altogether -- to Manna House in Dodge City, Nov. 6.

"It’s the largest donation of groceries from a church that we’ve ever received," declared Laura Koehn, director of the Manna House shelter and food pantry.

A pickup truck and a car loaded with sacks and parishioners rolled up in front of Manna House shortly before noon, and unloaded their goods in the Manna House basement pantry.

"We’ve been studying the corporal works of mercy, and we had heard that Manna House was in need of supplies, so we decided to help fill up their pantry again," explained parishioner Greg Lix.

St. Andrew’s parishioners of all ages meet the second Sunday of every month for breakfast and a study lesson to ponder. Luckily for Manna House, the corporal works of mercy include feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, and sheltering the homeless.

"This is the first time we’ve done anything like this on such a scale," Lix added. "It was announced from the pulpit and in the parish bulletin every week."

St. Andrew’s Parish has 120 families as parishioners, and most of the families brought sacks of non-perishable items and stacked them up in the church over a three-week period.

"We donated canned goods, instant potatoes, coffee, oatmeal, and some people really were carried away and brought cookies," said Mark Davis, another parishioner.

"We got all the kids out to help us, and we had to fight to keep them away from the cookies," he added, laughing.

"A couple of people donated fresh eggs and potatoes, but Manna House will quickly distribute those. Manna House opens its food pantry and gives away free boxes of food every afternoon during weekdays.

"Soule Intermediate School also collects boxes of food every year, and divides it between Manna House, the Crisis Center, and Mexican-American Ministries in Dodge City," Koehn related.

For the first time in a long time, Manna House has all the volunteers needed to assist in the house, but a search still is underway to hire a night manager to welcome and help guests who need a place to stay overnight.

"The greatest need we have now is to find a night manager for the staff," pointed out Koehn, who is nervously eyeing the coming of winter months when homeless people most need Manna House for shelter.

"Maybe some retired couple -- a husband and wife -- would be interested in the job of night manager," she said.

"It really isn’t that hard or stressful, but it will be hard to find another David (David Orellana, former night supervisor of Manna House, who served the shelter from 1995 to 2003). David still is a member of our board and helps us however he can."

Due to lack of a night supervisor, the non-profit shelter for the homeless has been forced to shut its doors to guests at night for several months since former night supervisor, Tom Ochoa, died. The Manna House food pantry remains open, however.

When the shelter is open to overnight guests, they arrive at Manna House at 5 p.m., eat supper, spend the night at the shelter, and check out at 8 a.m. the next day. A night supervisor must be on hand to cook supper and stay at the house during the night.

"We recently had two Hispanic ladies who volunteered to clean the house and act as translators," Koehn reported. "One will clean the upstairs, the other the downstairs."

Other volunteers from each of the seven churches represented on the Manna House board give of their time to sort clothes, pack boxes with food, and distribute the clothes and food to the needy who come for assistance.

The seven churches include the Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe, St. Cornelius Episcopal, First Missionary, First Presbyterian, First United Methodist, Christ the King Lutheran, and the Church of Christ.

"We also have a volunteer from the Mennonite Church in Dodge City, although that church is not represented on the board," Koehn explained.