Holy Family parishioners share their time to bring food to those in emergency situations

Intermountain Catholic

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Fred Zeuthen, a Holy Family parishioner who is president of the SHARE board of directors, readies a delivery of groceries that have been prepared at the storage facility. IC photo/Marie Mischel

OGDEN — When Holy Family parishioner Fred Zeuthen delivered two bags of groceries for SHARE, INC. on April 10 in Ogden, the client thanked him profusely. Her husband is in the early stages of dementia and his balance is precarious, she said.

"I worry about leaving him," said the woman, who asked not to be named. "I have to be here for him, so it’s hard for me to get out."

She doesn’t receive food stamps or any other government assistance, and she doesn’t have a car so she can’t go to the Joyce Hansen Hall food bank or Community Action, she said. "I can’t be gone for hours and leave my husband alone, so [SHARE] is our only means," she said.

Such stories are familiar to Zeuthen, who often hears them whenever he makes a delivery, he said.

The nonprofit SHARE delivers groceries to shut-ins, the disabled, the elderly and families with small children in the Ogden area. Typically, the amount is enough food for a week and is meant as a stopgap measure for those in need, said Charity DeSpain, SHARE office manager.

"There are so many reasons why somebody would run out of food until their next paycheck. You could buy a prescription, you could wreck your car – there are just so many little things that happen. Most people live paycheck by paycheck, so one little thing could throw them out of whack.... You buy a prescription you have nothing left. We’re there to get you by until the next paycheck or food stamps."

SHARE, INC. was begun in 1975 by an ecumenical group of women. Today the nonprofit has one paid staff person, DeSpain, whose primary job is to complete the paperwork and coordinate the clients’ needs with the volunteers’ work.

Last year they served 2,651 individuals. In addition to the home delivery made by volunteers they also provide groceries to Weber Human Services and Your Community Connection.

The organization receives some funding from FEMA and United Way, but "the rest of it is just a lot of local donations," DeSpain said. In previous years they have received money from the state, but didn’t get any this fiscal year. They were, however, named the beneficiary of the 2012 St. Benedict’s Foundation’s Christmas Grove.

Of the organization’s 35 or so volunteers, about a third are from Holy Family Parish. Members of various other churches also volunteer to do the shopping, stock the shelves, bag the groceries and deliver them.

"Everybody just goes and does their job and it just goes so smoothly," DeSpain said

Zeuthen, who is in the middle of his sixth two-year term as president of SHARE’s board of directors, typically spends about an hour each shift making deliveries. "This has become part of my life," he said, adding that the volunteers are all "dedicated individuals.... We’re doing it because there’s a need out there and I guess the Lord has sent us to do this."

Zeuthen got involved 15 years ago when another Holy Family parishioner, Tom Nystrom, asked him for help, Zeuthen said.

Nystrom was president of the board for four years. The current board has gone eight years without changes in members, Zeuthen said.

Among the other Holy Family parishioners who volunteer at SHARE are Wilbur and Patty Meier. Wilbur Meier began donating to the organization about 20 years ago through a payroll deduction program at his workplace. Then Jan Luger, another parishioner, asked him to volunteer, he said.

Patty Meier joined her husband as a volunteer; they now spend a couple of hours a week stocking the shelves, she said. "It’s rewarding because you can help others," she said. "It’s rewarding. It really is."