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Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of articles about the impact of Catholic Charities’ departure from Natchez and Adams County.

NATCHEZ – Parishoners at St. Mary Basilica are working to make sure at least two of the outreach services provided by Catholic Charities in Jackson continue despite the organizaion’s withdrawal from Natchez.

The Very Rev. Aaron Williams, rector at St. Mary Basilica, said Catholic Charities has been shrinking its footprint in Natchez and Adams County for several years.

“Over the past few years there’s been a lot of turnover of the directors in Natchez,” he said.

Catholic Charities opened its Natchez office nearly 35 years ago, led by the late Sister Clare Hogan. Housed in an office space next to St. Mary, the Natchez Catholic Charities branch provided counseling, adoption, financial aid and support services and eventually opened the Guardian Shelter to serve victims of domestic abuse.

“The counseling had stopped before May 2022,” Williams said. “A year ago, the office was closed but they kept the shelter open. They were still running the monthly food drive and the Christmas aid program … then we found out they closed the shelter. They told us that will not be involved anymore.”

However, Williams said two key outreach efforts – the monthly food drive and the Christmas program – have been absorbed into the work of the parish, where local volunteers have long provided hands-on organization and support.

“We know that Catholic Charities had the support of other area churches in the past, and we are hoping they will continue to support these programs that are now being run by St. Mary volunteers,” Williams said.

Betty Lou Hicks is one of those local volunteers. She helps coordinate the monthly Staples food drive, which provides donated food to some 40 to 50 people on the first Wednesday of the month.

The program has been supported in the past by funding from Catholic Charities, other area congregations and from individuals who made donations at the Natchez Markets. Community support has dwindled over the past year. “I used to pick up 10-15 bags of food a month at the Markets; this summer, I picked up three to five,” Hicks said.

But she is hopeful that operating the food drive through the local church’s outreach efforts will bring renewed local support for the program and continue to provide for the needy each month. “This food goes mostly to the elderly, and we always have people lined up waiting for the help each month,” she said.

Another community ministry that will now be overseen by Catholic Charities is the annual Christmas family adoption program, which provides gifts and support to needy families at Christmas time. For many years, the families applied for help through Catholic Charities, which screened and vetted the families and, more important, provided much of the financial support to make the program a success.

In recent years, Hicks said, Catholic Charities has scaled back its involvement and volunteers have turned to other local avenues – asking churches and individuals to adopt families or asking support from the Natchez Children’s Christmas Tree Fund – to provide the aid.

“This project has been so well supported in the community by so many people,” Hicks said. “We even have a Mardi Gras krewe of 20-year-old women who support us every year. That’s not who you would think would be adopting two or three children to help at Christmas, but they do.”

Having worked with both outreach programs for many years, Hicks said she has seen first-hand the positive difference the efforts make.

“When you get that phone call on Christmas Day or they send you pictures of their children opening the presents … you know it’s appreciated.

“And we all know it’s needed now more than ever.”

Now, Williams and Hicks are hoping other area congregations will support St. Mary’s efforts to continue these outreach ministries.

“I’m going to reach out to our local churches and let them know that St. Mary volunteers are taking on both of these programs, and that we hope they will continue to support the efforts,” Hicks said.

“We hope everything will remain the same (for the people served) as before,” Williams added.