"The Northshore Food Bank was originally founded as the Food Bank Inc. of St. Tammany on May 21, 1984, and was located at 342 Columbia Street. The idea for a food bank was planted at a meeting of the Ministerial Alliance of Covington by Deacon Skip Grafanini of St. Peter Catholic Church who later went on to become the director of the food bank in January of 1985.
Deacon Skip
As the Food Bank grew so did the number of churches involved in the endeavor increasing to 20 and then to 37. The churches took on full responsibility of providing all the food for the Food Bank without receiving any federal, state or municipal funding. Deacon Skip and the Food Bank ran on the philosophy “Whatever we give is, in reality, theirs, which God in His goodness gives to all. We are merely, in justice, sharing the abundance which we have taken for ourselves.”
The churches served 40 families per week in the first year of operation and by their first anniversary had 30 trained volunteers.
Today, the Food Bank is located at 840 N. Columbia Street and has a 6,000 sq ft. warehouse for packing and sorting food and has grown to include a 2,000 sq ft. Thrift Store and a state of the art Dental Clinic. In keeping with the philosophy of Deacon Skip, the Food Bank relies heavily on community donations with approximately 30% given by Second Harvest, a Feeding America Agency. Currently, the Food Bank serves close to 375 families a week and benefits from the generosity of more than 100 regular volunteers, some of which volunteer on a weekly basis."
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See also: Food Bank Groundbreaking
