Photo Caption: Father Brian Clarke, Pastor of Holy Rosary Parish and Rotary President-Elect Pat Ward
Holy Rosary Parish received a $3,600.00 “Service Above Self” Community Service Grant from The Rotary Club of Hazleton for a project that partners Holy Rosary Parish with Catholic Social Services. They will be providing one healthy cooked meal a month to the poor and homeless in the Greater Hazleton Area. Their project began February 13 and is part of an Area wide initiative to help feed Hazleton’s hungry.
 
 
“We are especially pleased with this project because it is the Rotary Club helping Holy Rosary Parish partnering with Catholic Social Services. Holy Rosary will be joining seven other churches and the Salvation Army in providing a feeding program in the City six days a week” explains Rotary President Ron Avellino. “It is good to see a number of local organizations working together to achieve a common goal, in this case feeding the hungry. Teamwork like this is what makes a community strong”
“We are partnering with Catholic Social Services to provide one healthy meal once/month to the poor and homeless (which includes senior citizens, women and children). Our meal will be held on the 2nd Saturday of the month at Catholic Social Services 214 West Walnut Street, Hazleton.” explains Carolyn Shemanski, Parishioner, Holy Rosary Parish. “Our job is to coordinate the meal to be served, purchase, prepare and serve the food and clean up afterwards”.
“Both Holy Rosary Parish-the grant recipients and Catholic Social Services-their partner, are very thankful to the Rotary for their support on this project. It is a good example of how collaboration is helping to respond to a community need” explains Neil Oberto, Executive Director, Catholic Social Services.