Miracle on 86th Street at Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew

Posted: December 9, 2004

Starting at 6 am, Food pantry customers line up outside the Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew's. This program that has received support from the United Methodist Committee on Relief.Credit: James "K" Karpen, 2000.

NEW YORK--Members of the Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew call the alterations to their landmark building "the cellar renovation." But the enterprise really ought to be called "miracle on 86th Street"--a miracle of connection among neighbors, church members, and folks of other faiths in this West Side New York neighborhood.

When completed the cellar will house the largest emergency food program in New York City-- a supermarket food pantry that served nearly 93,000 people in 2003 from smaller, cramped quarters. In its redesigned quarters, the pantry will offer fresh produce and meat, chilled in commercial refrigerator units.

Meeting Family's Needs After 9/11

Church members started the West Side Campaign Against Hunger in 1979. "We have imaginative, active laypersons here," Pastor James "K" Karpen told a visitor. "They saw a need and wanted to do something." In the first year of operation the pantry provided 863 people with food. By 2000 tens of thousands visited the pantry. After 9/11 the number of customers tripled.

Through the Love in the Midst of Tragedy offering proceeds, UMCOR provided a grant of $197,000 for the pantry program. The New York Annual Conference supported the expansion with a $250,000 grant. The conference also funded two critical staff positions.

The church saw other needs and acted. Neighborhood services expanded to include after-school tutoring and a homeless shelter. A meals-on-wheels program delivered over 156,000 meals-- cooked in church kitchens-- to elderly New Yorkers last year.

Food can be the expendable item in a low-income family's budget, noted a recent report in Nation magazine. Pastor Karpen described one pantry customer who earns $10 per hour at her job. After paying for rent, car fare, clothes, medicine, and utilities, she has $237 per month left for everything else. The pantry is a lifesaver for her and her three children, Rev. Karpen said.

A New Supermarket Food Pantry

The new cellar will house commercial ranges as well as the supermarket food pantry. The kitchen with its big gas ranges will speed meal preparation for the meals-on-wheels deliveries. In a separate kitchen, food pantry customers aspiring to become chefs will study techniques. A third kitchen will accommodate the Jewish congregation that shares the building. "This may be the only United Methodist church in the world that has a kosher kitchen," said Gale Brewer, the neighborhood's city council representative. The building is hospitable to all backgrounds, explained Pastor Karpen, in effect serving as an interfaith community center for Jews, Christians, and Muslims.

Customers volunteer and run the store, set up like a grocery with shelves, aisles, and supplies of food stocked by category. Shoppers choose what they want for nine healthy meals once a month. While they wait to shop, they can sign up for training programs-in nutrition, wellness, exercise, and English classes.

"If we were in Omaha, we'd build three buildings," joked Ken Guest, the chair of the board of trustees at the church. Instead the church's vision had to fit into a densely populated urban neighborhood and the existing 100-year-old structure with its distinctive bell tower.

The general contractor, Jon Pohlmann, showed a visitor the reinforcing courses of Catskill bluestone uncovered in the face-lift of the once-dreary cellar. The discovery was as much a surprise to him as the scope of the church's ministries to the neighborhood. "You don't always know what is going on at the church that you attend on Sunday," he said.

Donors to the construction effort are as diverse as the church's membership. In addition to UMCOR two Jewish congregations, several foundations, the New York City Council and State Assembly, a neighborhood bank assisted with funding. Church members themselves raised half a million dollars. The congregation and its partners will dedicate the "cellar renovation"- or "miracle on 86th Street"- in early 2005.

This food pantry is the kind of project that benefits from gifts to UMCOR's World Hunger and Poverty Advance #982920. To support the alleviation of hunger both within the United States and internationally, donors may send checks to UMCOR, 475 Riverside Dr., New York, NY 10115. Credit card donors may call toll free, 1-800-554-8583.