Catholic Charities of Central and Northern Missouri is marking the close of its 10th anniversary of heeding the Bible's call to serve those in need.
After a decade of service, the charitable organization isn't sitting on its laurels. Instead, it's continuing to expand its programs, serving even more people in more ways.
Catholic Charities is the social services outreach arm of the Catholic Diocese of Jefferson City. It serves 38 counties, one-third of the counties in Missouri.
The agency has embarked on new initiatives including behavioral health and counseling services; a state-of-the-art client choice food pantry; and expanding services in the areas of refugee and family immigration have prompted the agency to bring on a group of talented and diverse staff to work directly with those it serves.
It has consulted with parishes, schools and individuals and sees a need within the community and across the counties it serves to provide these services.
This coming spring, the agency will open the Health and Nutrition Services program, a client-choice food pantry. It includes the capacity for 60 pallets of food in storage and a demonstration kitchen for learning opportunities. When clients are shopping, their children can visit an interactive childrens' corner.
Catholic Charities also has met an increased need for refugee and immigration support. Catholic Charities Refugee Services has resettled more than 240 Afghan refugees in the last eleven weeks. That tops the previous record of 229 refugee resettlements in the year 2016.
It also has added key administrative personnel: Sister Kathleen Wegman will strengthen the agency's Catholic identity and mission in everything it does; Dan Kempker is serving as the inaugural director of finance; and Ashley Wiskirchen recently started as the director of communications. She joins the agency from the Diocese of Jefferson City, where she served as associate director of communications.
We love how Catholic Charities puts its faith into action to serve its fellow man. Here's wishing it another decade of success and beyond.
News Tribune