A woman collects free food dispensed from a tube at the gate of Tan Sa Chau Church in Ho Chi Minh City on June 30. (Photo: UCA News)
By UCA News reporter, Ho Chi Minh City
Jul 5 2021
Church adopts simple but effective method to help people hit by the latest outbreak of the virus
A dozen volunteers start to serve bread with meat for breakfast at 5.30am in the yard in front of Tan Sa Chau Church in Ho Chi Minh City.
They use a pair of two-meter-long plastic tubes connecting the church’s main gate to tables on the sidewalk. When people in need show up at the tables outside, Father Vincent Nguyen Hoang Le Nguyen, the parish’s assistant priest, and another volunteer quickly place loaves of bread into the tubes. The loaves land in the baskets placed on the tables before people in lines pick up one each and take it away. About 400 loaves are distributed in about 90 minutes.
Dressed in a cassock, Father Nguyen uses a speaker to remind people to wear face masks and keep themselves at safe distances. He also sprays disinfectant around the gate to ensure a safe environment.
He said the tubes help ensure social distancing and prevent large crowds. When all the food has been served, the tubes are removed.
Father Joseph Nguyen Huu Triet, parish priest, said the parish has adopted the tube initiative to safely supply basic food to vulnerable people for over a month since the southern city implemented social distancing measures to contain a new Covid-19 outbreak in late May.
Though the tubes are nondescript in appearance and simple in design, they allow the parish to offer breakfast and lunch to 1,000 people on a daily basis. The parish with 5,000 members also gives rice, instant noodles, eggs, sweet potatoes and other food to 400-1,000 people in the afternoon from Monday to Saturday. Benefactors make generous donations — money, masks, food — to the 65-year-old parish’s Sharing Love program.
We believe that our gifts have little value but show our sincere heart and love to people affected by the pandemic
“Local volunteers gather at the church at 4.30am to prepare and serve meals of love for all people regardless of their backgrounds,” the 76-year-old priest said, adding that recipients include lottery ticket sellers, vendors, scrap collectors, motorbike taxi drivers, jobless workers and people badly affected by the pandemic.
Joseph Tran Viet Hop, head of the parish council, said the initiative is highly appreciated by local people and many of them have donated 50 tonnes of rice and other raw food. The parish bought tens of tonnes of sweet potatoes from farmers in other places who could not sell their produce due to the national lockdown. They are given to people in need.
“We believe that our gifts have little value but show our sincere heart and love to people affected by the pandemic,” Hop said.
Recipients smile, nod thanks to the volunteers and quickly leave the church.
Anna Tran My Lien, a babysitter, said she has lived on free food given by the church for the past few weeks since she became jobless.
“I feel safe to get food here and it is good,” Lien, 64, said while waiting her turn to pick up food from the tables on June 30. Each meal includes rice, proteins, broth, fish sauce and a bottle of water. The food changes every day. She often receives rice and face masks from the parish.
Lien, who is thin and frail, said she is in poor health and her husband is old and has no job. Her daughter, who used to teach at a daycare center, is also unemployed.
“Our grandchildren also suffer from a lack of food, so we have to share the food with them to survive these hard times. We are deeply grateful to the church as we do not know how to live without its material support,” Lien said.
I will go here to get free food each day. I hope I will no longer be hungry
Tran Van Long, who earns a living as a used-item collector, said he was over the moon to be invited to enjoy a bite when he passed by the church’s gate.
Long said he gets little money to buy food during the pandemic, so “I will go here to get free food each day. I hope I will no longer be hungry.”
Archbishop Joseph Nguyen Nang of Ho Chi Minh City said no one knows when the pandemic will end and further outbreaks will happen, impoverishing people’s material and spiritual life.
The prelate called on local Catholics to sympathize with coronavirus-stricken people and seek effective and practical ways to help them out during these hard times. They should unite all people to do useful things for people in need.
The country’s most active archdiocese has suspended all religious activities to contain the Covid-19 outbreak at the government’s request since late May.
With 4,152 cases, Ho Chi Minh City has the highest number of infections out of the 13,942 locally transmitted cases in the Southeast Asian country since the fourth wave of the outbreak was detected on April 27. The outbreak has spread to 51 of Vietnam’s 63 cities and provinces. – UCANews
