My Girl Scout troop held a canned food drive in December, and we went on Saturday to donate the goods to a soup kitchen/food pantry run by the Missionaries of Charity, the order of nuns founded by Mother Theresa. There are four nuns of her order here in Kyiv, and the Missionaries has been here since 1991.
The sisters operate a soup kitchen 3 days a week for homeless people, and once a month they provide food packages to needy families. They also provide housing for about 6 alcoholic men in recovery (who help the sisters with their work), run a summer camp for needy children, provide clothes, shoes and school supplies to needy children and families, and many, many more charitable acts.
I had never been to one of Mother Theresa’s missionaries before, nor had I ever met one of her sisters. The word that keeps coming to my mind is “beautiful”. No, the facility wasn’t beautiful (it was simple and clean), but talking with the nuns, learning about their work, meeting their regular volunteers, and watching our Girl Scouts have a such a great time while learning and helping was an altogether beautiful experience.
The nuns are all the tiniest little things, short and thin. I could tell just by looking at them their diets are slim. Yet they each had a smile constantly on her face. They each instantly put our nervous girls at ease with their warm smiles and comfortable manner and gentle joking. I know it was a busy time for them, but all four of them took time to speak to the girls, to ask them questions about themselves, and to answer the girls’ questions. They are the kind of people you just want to be near, to stand next to and listen to and watch and try to absorb some of the kindness, warmth and love that emanates from them.
I don’t mean to gush, which I realize is what it sounds like I’m doing. I generally don’t care much for religious organizations, as I see a lot of hypocrisy and judgementalism (is that a word?) in most of them. These women were so clearly heartfelt, honest and simple in their devotion and dedication. Frankly, I had a brief moment of wanting to join them myself, to live so simply and to give of myself so entirely to others. While joining their order isn’t realistic for me, I am glad to know that I can support their work myself by helping them.
The nuns provide food packages to needy families once a month, usually 70-100 families. They regularly provide flour, sugar, rice, pasta, lentils, oatmeal, cooking oil, tea and coffee, and then add whatever other donations they have received that month. This month there were juice boxes, frozen fish, and the Girl Scouts’ canned vegetables. One regular volunteer told us about the month a candy factory had donated chocolate bars and the families had been so thrilled to get such a special treat.
The food is distributed based on the number of family members. The operation is quite well organized. A family checks in, hands over the bags they’ve brought with them to carry the food home, and a male volunteer is given their bags and a card indicating the number of family members. That volunteer comes into the room where the food supplies are, and volunteers man each station. The girls were in charge of cooking oil, juice and the canned goods. I worked the oatmeal station, where I had a huge barrel from which I bagged up oatmeal with a pre-measured one-kilogram scoop. 1-3 family members = 1 kg each of flour, oatmeal, pasta, rice, sugar; 1 package of tea, etc.; 4-6 family members = 2 kg of each item; 7-9 people: 3 kgs; 10+ = 4 kgs. Each volunteer placed her item into the bags carried by the male volunteers, and then the men took the bags back out to the waiting families. We did this for about an hour, and although I didn’t count exactly how many families we served, I would guess about 70. The regular volunteers said it was an unusually small number of families this time.
Most of the families were in the 4-6 people range. There were two or three “10+”, including one family of 14 which the girls talked about quite extensively. They tried to imagine who was in that family - 12 children? 4 grandparents? How did they live? We talked a bit with the girls about the amount of food each family received, and how much food their own families consume each month. It was obvious to me that the food wasn’t enough for a month, but I’m not sure the girls realized that since I’m sure none of them does much grocery shopping. I think we’ll give them a task to keep track for one month how much of the items we distributed at the food pantry their families consume - pasta, rice, sugar, juice, etc. so they can try to understand better.
There were 6 other volunteers there aside from our 4 Girl Scouts and their parents. One German woman said she’s been coming three times a week for 2 years to help the nuns. Two American couples come on Saturdays to help with the food pantry. One young Ukrainian woman used to come twice a week when she was in college but now that’s working she can come only on Saturdays. One young Ukrainian was there for the first time, too.
After the work, one of the sisters showed us their prayer room, with a crucifix and the words “I thirst” painted on the wall next to it. She told us that every one of the Missionaries of Charity has that painted on a wall, as it was Jesus’ last words on the cross and a reminder to them, as Mother Theresa said, that everything they do for others, they do for Jesus. There was also a picture of Mother Theresa above a candle, and the sister said they have a relic of her (but I didn’t go close enough to see what it was).
The girls unanimously agreed they want to take turns every month helping to distribute the food, and we will try to start a regular can food collection at their school. I was very proud of them.
