The Third Station:
Jesus crosses the lake to pray

Food For The Poor Chapel

Each of the Food For The Poor facilities has a chapel. On the day that we visited their Jamaican facility, we attended mass.

The Celebrant was our Pilgrimage Leader
Father Paul Wilderotter - Florida

Homily by
Deacon Al Williams – St. Louis, MO


Ellerslie community Development Project
Ellerslie Pen, St. Catherine

Located behind the Food For The Poor Warehouse in Spanish Town, Jamaica, is a
poverty – stricken community marked by rusty zinc fences and crumbling shacks. Ellerslie Pen is a desperate community with overwhelming needs.

Try to imagine…

- Living in a shack where plastic, magazines and newspapers are stuck to the walls to cover holes…to mask rotting wood…and to escape your desolate surroundings.
- Struggling to keep your children and their one and only set of clothing dry, as rain pours through the rusted and leaky roof.
- Not being able to provide shoes for your youngsters.
- Having to walk precariously through your house for fear of dropping through the Floorboards.
- Waking up early in the morning to get water from this dirty river, which also happens to be the only place for your family to bathe.
- Making “tea” for your children, which is nothing more than sugar water...but at least it stops the hunger pains for awhile.
- The cardboard that you used to plug the holes in the roof gave way during last night’s rain and drenched your bed. You had to send your children to stay at a relatives house, which is just another shack, but it doesn’t leak quite as bad as
yours.

Living surrounded by mud and sewage has become a tolerated and accepted lifestyle in Ellerslie.  Day to day existence is a struggle and having enough food to feed your children is a constant source of anxiety. Most have simply lost all hope for a new and better life.

Food For The Poor is dedicated to serving the poorest of the poor in Ellerslie, a community where disease, hunger, unemployment, and suffering are a way of life. With the help of donors, they can transform Ellerslie into a neighborhood of hope and dignity, and change the face of poverty. I have provided some pictures on the next page that speak for themselves. A redevelopment project is underway designed to uplift Ellerslie Pen, an almost 12 acre community that was first settled over 25 years ago. The Food For The Poor Social Outreach Director identifies the worst homes and after verifying the lots are owned by the resident, they will are replaced by a 12’X 12’ wooden house with a cement floor and a zinc roof. Depending on the size of the family, their shack will either be replaced with a single housing unit or two will be attached to create a double home.

To complete this neighborhood revitalization, the existing infrastructure will be improved and the community’s substandard sanitation facilities will be replaced. Additionally to add some light to the lives of the children the organization would like to eventually upgrade recreational facilities at the Ellerslie Pen Basic School.

 

 

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