Beverly Perry, Fr. Edward Zaorski, Pam Perry, Fr. Anthony Richter and Fr. Cornelius Okeke celebrate the opening of the food pantry in mid-November.Detroit — Help comes in unusual places.
Sometimes those places can be especially unusual, such as in the case of a retired party store in southwest Detroit, which was recently transformed into an outreach center for those in need.
“This was property donated to SS. Andrew and Benedict Parish from one of our parishioners who owned the party store,” said Fr. Edward Zaorski, pastor of that parish in Detroit, as well as its cluster partner, St. Mary Magdalen Parish in Melvindale.
The two parishes collaborated with three other Downriver parishes — St. Henry Parish and its cluster partner Christ the Good Shepherd Parish in Lincoln Park, and St. Andre Bessette Parish in Escorse — to bring their mission of Christian service to the local community.
The building was renamed the Perry Outreach Center for the Perry family, the former owners of the store and longtime parishioners of SS. Andrew and Benedict, in memory of their late father, Percy Perry.
“The family still wanted to have some service in the community,” said Fr. Zaorski, explaining that the outreach center is relatively new, having only officially opened Nov. 17.
A view of the shelves stocked with food in the new Perry Outreach Center, run by five parishes in the Downriver area.The Perry Outreach Center primarily provides food for those in need, but Fr. Zaorski pointed out that this is more than “a food assistance program.”
“We hope to one day network with other agencies that can help provide services that we don’t have,” he said, including programs to help individuals develop a personal budget, or provide work training, as some of the projected goals.
Inez Hernandez, parish secretary at St. Andre Bessette, explained the process of helping Perry Outreach clients.
“Each of the five parishes has an agreement that if someone comes to the front door of the office, we give them a 24-hour bag of food,” he said. “Then we give them a referral form to fill out, which is color-coded by parish. We keep a copy of the form at the parish office,” which helps the communication among the five parishes.
Logged clients can then receive assistance from the outreach center once a month, and no longer need to go from one parish to another to seek food assistance.
People often don’t realize that even communities father out from the inner city have people who are in need, Hernandez said, and “those same problems are happening out here as well.”
Fr. Anthony Richter, pastor of Christ the Good Shepherd Parish and administrator of St. Henry Parish, said the primary goal of the Perry Outreach Center is to “allow people to become self-sufficient.”
“The goal in helping them become self-sufficient is so that they are able to live without needing help,” said Fr. Richter.
“Sometimes people want help with food, but what they really need [long-term] is job training. Or if their house is going into foreclosure, how can we help them get their debt under control?”
Fr. Zaorski said the outreach center uses “a pool of volunteers” from the five parishes, and each person brings something different to the table.
“Some parishes bring financial support; others, human resources skills; others, organization know-how,” he said. “This isn’t any one parish’s ministry — it’s ‘what can each of these parishes bring?’”
He pointed out that they are using the philosophy of Acts 5, in which the Christian communities “got together and brought what they could for the good of the community.”
He explained that the outreach center is working hard to establish the seven mission priorities of Phase Two of the Archdiocese of Detroit’s “Together in Faith” initiative, focusing largely on the “Christian Service and Outreach” priority, though many apply in one way or another.
Hernandez said that as of Nov. 20, three days after opening, 20 families had already been helped.
Connect with the Perry Outreach Center
For more information or to obtain assistance or a referral to the Perry Outreach Center, contact one of the five parish offices below:
• SS. Andrew and Benedict Parish, Detroit: (313) 381-1184
• St. Mary Magdalen Parish, Melvindale: (313) 381-1319
• St. Henry Parish, Lincoln Park: (313) 381-6746
• Christ the Good Shepherd Parish, Lincoln Park: (313) 928-1324
• St. Andre Bessette Parish, Ecorse: (313) 383-8514
