Newspaper Page Text
? / s i
PAGE 3 — The Georgia Bulletin, February 8, 1990
A&P Certificates Help SVDP Five For Food Program
BY RITA McINERNEY
There’s a dividend for the poor in the certificates
available to food shoppers through the Particular Council of
the St. Vincent de Paul Society.
These gift certificates are redeemable at all A&P
markets in the archdiocese, according to Sheila Bisson-
nette, executive director of SVDP.
She believes the certificates will appeal to people who
care about the poor. By purchasing the certificates for their
own food shopping, they will be helping the Five For Food
program through which SVDP assists many people who
might otherwise have nothing to eat.
Five For Food depends on monthly contributions to stock
its food pantry at the Particular Council office at 26 Third
St. in midtown Atlanta.
Certificates may be purchased by sending checks to the
address above. They are available in denominations of $10,
$20 or $50. At A&P markets they are used as cash. While the
certificate purchaser receives $100 or $50 in groceries he or
she is also enabling SVDP to receive a bonus of eight per
cent. For each $100 the SVDP sells in certificates, it
receives $8 for its own charitable work. Certificates are
good for one year and cannot be converted into cash.
Change for certificate purchases is limited to under one
dollar.
Ms. Bissonnette has purchased several thousand dollars
in certificates from A&P in order to gain the eight percent
commission. She is hopeful, when the program becomes
more widespread, of obtaining a 10 percent commission.
This will be possible when SVDP can buy, at one time,
$20,000 in certificates from the food chain.
Junior High Rally
First For Diocese
The archdiocesan office of youth ministry will sponsor
the first Junior High Youth Rally on Sat., Feb. 24, at St.
Patrick Church in Norcross. The day will begin at 10 a.m.
and conclude at 10 p.m. The cost is $10.
Junior high youth from throughout the archdiocese have
been asked to suggest names for the day. Interested young
people should contact their parish religious education office
or school.
A variety of activities are being planned for the day, in
cluding talks, workshops, outside game activities, liturgy,
and a concluding dance. Senior high youth will be giving the
talks, offering peer ministry to the junior high youth. The
church is at 2140 Beaver Ruin Road.
“We feel that it is essential for continued faith develop
ment that junior high youth understand and believe that the
Church really cares for them as they grow and mature,”
said Alicia Marcos of the youth ministry office. “We look
forward to meeting a lot of our youth on this important
day.”
•Mwv
MEDJUGORJE
From $799 All Inclusive
Weekly Departures
Pilgrimage j
to Medjugorje;
Spiritual Guide !
Price Includes: Airfare, \
Accommodations,
Two Meals Per Day, :
Tranfers and more.
H Price Listed From N.Y. - Atlanta Add-OnSS
Available. Call Now - Space Limited.
Tour Leaders - One Free Per 15.
1 imKLflBE |
Professional Travel
(404 ) 497-0004
Bill Kingery/Charles Asensio
Owners
With the certificates she has on hand, Ms. Bissonnette
shops for Five For Food supplies and fulfills monthly com
mitments to the meal program at St. Anthony’s Church in
the West End and the St. Francis Table at the Shrine of the
Immaculate Conception downtown. The monthly contribu
tion of $500 to St. Francis Table now costs SVDP $460 and
the $40 is shared with the Table.
The profit for the Five For Food program can be signifi
cant when the Council spends between $6,000 and $7,000
each month for food, Ms. Bissonnette says.
The program develped several months ago when Rich
Flaherty, a member of the SVDP conference at St. Ann’s
parish in Marietta and vice president for the Southeast
region for A&P, was approached by Ms. Bissonnette about
fund-raising possibilities. Flaherty suggested the cer-
New Assignment For Rural Dean
Pastoring 1,000 rather
than 300 is only one dif
ference Father Vincent
Douglass, CSsR, expects
when he leaves Georgia for
a new assignment in
Virginia.
The Redemptorist priest
will become pastor Feb. 10
of St. Joseph’s Church in
Hampton, Va. For the past
six years he has been
pastor of St. Gerard’s
parish in Fort Oglethorpe
in the far northwest corner
of the state. Before that he
was pastor of St. James in
McDonough and its mission
in Jackson.
During his 12 years in
the archdiocese. Father
Douglass served as dean
for the northwest rural
deanery, initiated weekly
Masses for inmates on
Death Row, dedicated a
church and administered
the sacrament of Confir
mation. He does not expect
to find this variety of ex
periences in his new
assignment.
tificate program which would bring an outright donation to
Five For Food.
“It looks like it’s starting to grow. Some of the parish con
ferences are interested,” Flaherty commented.
Conferences have begun using the certificates to shop for
their own pantries and to give to clients. Half the bonus is
shared by the Council with the purchasing conferences.
Flaherty said store clerks are aware of the program and
customers using the certificates will have no problems.
Ms. Bissonnette suggests the certificates make good gifts
for occasions year-round. They are also good at Future
Stores and any stores owned by A&P throughout the coun
try.
Shoppers using the certificates have told the executive
director that it’s easier to use them than to deal with the
check chasing system at
the stores. "They’re as
good as money and there is
the ease of use.”
Father Douglass
As dean, he says he was
privileged to dedicate Our
Lady of the Mountains new
church in Jasper when the
archdiocese did not have
an ordinary. It was also at
this time that he confirmed
parishioners at Our Lady of
LaSalette Church in Can
ton. As chaplain for the in
mates at the Georgia
Diagnostic and Classifica
tion Center in Jackson, he
began celebrating Mass
1L
Sugar Creek..,
GOLF COURSE
Golf Professional
Carl Caputa
Golf Lessons • Fully Lighted Driving Range;-;!
Equipment and Club Repair • Tournaments;!;!
Special Events • Tennis Association ;!;!
• Snack Bar ;!;!
AG Spanos Tennis Center
2706 Bouldercrest Rd. Atlanta GA !|
241-7671 I
morn
Mortgage Investment/Equipment Icasmg/Construction
BUSINESS LOANS
Start-up Business Expansions
COMMERCIAL LOANS
Income Producing Properties
LAND LOANS
At 50% LTV
1 st & 2nd
MORTGAGES
Excellent Rates
As Low As
8.50 7.99
Fixed Rate Adjustable
LOANS FOR ANY REASON
SLOW CREDIT OK (404)325-0003 SAME DAY APPROVAL.
each Wednesday for Death
Row inmates. As first
pastor of the McDonough
parish he helped form the
ministerial association in
the town and became its
first president. These
highlights in his Georgia
ministry “will carry me on
to my new assignment,” he
said.
“I hate to leave. I know
everybody. I’ve grown fond
of a lot of people and
priests. It’s been a nice ex
perience.”
Father George Kelly,
CSsR, will be the new
pastor at St. Gerard. He
had been doing promo
tional work for Holy Fami
ly Retreat House in Hamp
ton, Va. before his assign
ment to Georgia.
“I consider it to be an ad
ditional, passive way of
supporting SVDP,” she
says.
All contributions for Five
For Food are used only for
food, she stresses. For the
fiscal year from October,
1988 through Sept. 30, 1989,
422 contributors gave
$36,027 to FFF. For the
same period, $34,987 was
spent on food for the poor.
The money left over from
the last fiscal year goes in
to spending for the current
year.
Contributions for the first
three months of the current
fiscal year amount to
$10,787 with $9,735 spent to
date.
Jekyll Island
Anytime Special!
ANYTWO $
NIGHTS
for as low as
St. Thomas More
Catholic School
National School of Excellence
Registering
Feb. 20 - March 2
9:00-11:30 - 1:30-2:30
Since 1950 ^ or
fcince 1950 School Year
All Day Kindergarten thru 8th Grade
* Fully Accredited *
* Extended Daycare Until 6 P.M. *
* Certified Faculty *
*Caring, Christian Environment *
373-8456
630 W. Ponce de Leon Ave.
Decatur, Georgia
STM does not discriminate on the basis of
race, sex, color, national or ethnic origin.