By Thea Jarvis

The third Sunday of every month is "Food Sunday" at Our Lady of the Assumption Church in northeast Atlanta. And on Food Sundays, OLA parishioners might be caught with anything from dried beans to canned applesauce under their arms as they enter church for Mass.

"The Food Sunday program is about five or six years old," said Wiley Maloof, president of the Assumption conference of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, which takes charge of the monthly roundup of grocery goods.

"It started with the Thanksgiving collection one year," he explained. "Monsignor Moylan (OLA's first pastor) gave all of the Thanksgiving collection to St. Vincent de Paul and the custom wasn't interrupted by any new pastors."

There came a year, however, when the financial contributions garnered at Thanksgiving were not enough. The society made an urgent appeal to the parish for canned goods and non-perishable items. He response? Gratifying.

"We got three pickup trucks full of food," Maloof recalled. The rest is history. Food Sundays are now a matter of tradition.

Though a Food Sunday collection does not normally result in the need for a pickup truck, OLA's generosity does make for a worship space brimming with donations for those in need.

"Families bring the food to the steps of the altar at the Offertory," said Maloof. "It doesn’t take too much time, because not every family will remember to bring the food every month. Some are involved one month -- others the next."

The food is left on the altar steps during the Sunday morning Masses, a visible reminder of the parish commitment to the hungry. It is collected by the Vincentians the following morning, sometimes "one or two car trunks full," Wiley Maloof noted.

"People feel like they are taking action, like they are taking part in charitable works," said the enthusiastic Maloof, obviously convinced of the effectiveness of the outreach.

"In addition to getting people involved, it saves us money. We can give donated groceries to our clients and the money can go for other necessities -- rent, heating, electricity bills, car payments."

Some might consider the Assumption neighborhood a little beyond the reach of the bill collector. The church is located on Hearst Circle and is part of the comfortable suburban sprawl surrounding metropolitan Atlanta.

But the need for an active parish St. Vincent de Paul conference exists nonetheless

Maloof observed that the Assumption conference answers calls within its parish boundaries and also helps out in parishes where the St. Vincent de Paul Society is not active. In addition, Assumption reaches a hand of friendship to nearby churches whose local conference cannot handle cases without some outside assistance.

"We recently put $300 into a case from another parish -- the light bill, rent and groceries all had to be taken care of and we knew they couldn't handle it themselves," he said.

"We have a case right now where a young male divorcee paying child support is losing his car, his house. In this instance, Maloof asserted, "you're looking at a $1,000 case."

It is, perhaps, the parish support of the monthly Food Sunday effort that enables Assumption's Vincentians to work freely and generously with those in temporary or long-term need.

"We like to get our people involved," said Maloof, whose own place of business, not far from the church, houses much of the donated food that comes in each month. The parish St. Vincent de Paul Society, he feels "is not an autonomous arm where the parishioners aren't involved. This gives them the chance to participate in an active way even if they can't go out on the calls with us."

For other parishes anxious to respond effectively to local need, the Food Sunday program is a healthy, viable model.

The success of Assumption's grass-roots effort indicates that people do want to become involved in helping others. And, pulling together, involvement can work.