Episcopal Press and News
Church-Market Co-Ops Aid Texas Needy
Episcopal News Service. May 5, 1983 [83082]
SAN ANTONIO (DPS, May 5) - The Episcopal Diocese of West Texas has ended the five-month Valley grapefruit distribution season with the distribution of the last of nearly 2,000,000 pounds of Ruby Reds to needy families in the 60-county diocese, the Rt. Rev. Stanley F. Hauser, suffragan bishop, announced. This is the seventh consecutive season for the locally-run operation.
Meanwhile, in the Rio Grande Valley area, another project, the "Brown Bag Program" administered by St. John's Episcopal Church in McAllen, has distributed more than 400,000 pounds of fresh produce so far this season to families in the Valley and to other points as far north as Fredericksburg in the Hill Country.
"Project Grapefruit," which since mid-November had received 95,909 boxes of Ruby Reds donated by the Crest Fruit Co. of Alamo for free distribution, is administered by the Hope for the Hungry Committee of the diocese. In San Antonio the program is under the supervision of Cecil Tilghman of the Church of the Resurrection and Mrs. Rollins S. Rubsamen of St. Mark's Church.
The 20-pound Crest Fruit Co. boxes, all marked "Not for Sale," are trucked to the West Coast Produce Co. terminal in San Antonio for off-loading and re-routing to other destinations at no cost. Tilghman reported that 57,065 boxes were distributed in San Antonio and the surrounding area. The remaining 38,844 boxes went to Del Rio, Laredo, Corpus Christi, Rockport, Alice, Port Lavaca, Victoria, Luling, Fredericksburg, and, outside the diocese, Austin, Waco, Dallas and El Paso.
More than 125 local and area church and service organizations are served by the Episcopal diocese's project.
The "Brown Bag Program" in the Valley, which has been coordinated by Janet Welch of St. John's Church, collects from local packers a variety of vegetables and fruit that do not meet supermarket standards in appearance although completely edible. Depending on the season, the program distributes cabbage, cauliflower, cucumbers, onions, lettuce, tomatoes, grapefruit and oranges to needy families in the Valley as well as to the Corpus Christi and Fredericksburg areas.
Vegetables received in Fredericksburg and Comfort are distributed by an interdenominational group called the Hill Country Concerned Christians, organized in 1977 by the Rev. Dean Pratt, then rector of St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Fredericksburg.
The "Brown Bag Program" owns and uses one medium-sized truck and when needed is loaned a pickup truck by Toyota dealer Frank Smith of St. John's Church. Long-haul shipments are provided free by Central Freight Lines, whose president is Woody Callan of St. Paul's Church, Waco.
Now in its eighth year, the Valley food program will be administered by Kathy DeGreif, who succeeded Welch in mid-April. Grants from the Church's Presiding Bishop's Fund For World Relief have been used to aid the projects.