A Message from Matthew 25  - July 2025



By Cindy, Outreach Coordinator

Our Matthew 25 Food Pantry was created with humble beginnings in the year 2000. We are celebrating our 25th anniversary at Saint Patrick this year!

Since 2000, we have served tens of thousands in need, and in recent years we have been serving an estimated 50 households each month (approximately 80 to 150+ individuals), which rose to nearly 80 households a month (approximately 125 to 225+ individuals) during the Covid years. These households include thousands of your neighbors in Cedar Falls and Waterloo, about a third of whom are children, and some of whom are unhoused.

About 40 St. Patrick parishioners volunteer through our Matthew 25 ministry to keep our food pantry running smoothly. The majority of them volunteer in our outreach office or pantry on a regular basis, allowing our clients to pick up much needed food and toiletries on Monday mornings and Thursday afternoons each week.

Since the beginning of Matthew 25 at Saint Patrick Parish, our congregation has donated just over $300,000 in total. In recent years, because of your generosity and compassion, we have been able to consistently donate approximately 2,000 to 3,500+ pounds of food each month to our neighbors in need in Cedar Falls and Waterloo.

To bolster our ministry so that we can continue helping those in need in our community and to someday celebrate our 50th anniversary at Saint Patrick Parish, we need your help. The level of need has risen over the last five years, as has the cost of food, but donations are not keeping pace with need. If this trend continues, Matthew 25 Food Pantry is on track to run out of funding by next summer. Your donations pay for the food we give out to families and individuals in need, operating supplies specific to Matthew 25, our Northeast Iowa Food Bank licensing fee, and the outreach coordinator’s salary.

Monetary donations go the furthest, as we can purchase much more food through the Northeast Iowa Food Bank with the same dollar that you would spend at your local grocery store. If you are not able to give monetarily, we post lists of Matthew 25 needs in the bulletin and on Facebook each week. Please watch for those and donate the listed items when you can.

You can also volunteer your time. We always welcome new phone volunteers and new pantry volunteers, as well as volunteers to do tasks outside of Matthew 25 operational hours.

Thank you for your generosity, both past and present, and your prayerful consideration in securing the future of Matthew 25 to serve our community for the next 25 years.