The Ladies of Charity of Northern Utah will celebrate 20 years as an association in 2023. We were established as an association in 2003 in Bountiful under the direction of Daughter of Charity Sr. Charlotte Marie Clark, our Sister Moderator, who founded the Association. She later started a second chapter at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Salt Lake City in 2008. We have come a long way from our early beginnings, and I am one of the original members of this association, who packed food boxes in the driveway of the Daughters of Charity convent using their storage shed to store our canned goods and other food items. This was our temporary food pantry until we could rent a facility -- but it worked! Daughter of Charity Sr. Germaine Sarrazin is now our Sister moderator and Executive Director. Initially, we would drive Sr. Charlotte’s small Dodge truck to the Northern Utah Food Pantry in Ogden, about 30 minutes north of Bountiful, to get a pallet of food. We also gave back our time by sorting bins of canned food items in Ogden at the Food Pantry. To prepare the supplemental food boxes for the households we served in Ogden and Salt Lake, we would line up boxes in the driveway, and fill them with the canned food and items, and load them in the back of the truck or Ladies of Charity cars to be delivered. We had various households we each served. After a while, Sr. Charlotte rented a building in North Salt Lake that had served as the North Salt Lake Post Office. There, we could line up about 30 boxes on a long table and fill them. We continued picking up the food ourselves until we agreed to open as a pantry a few days a month so that the Salt Lake Food Bank would agree to deliver food pallets directly to our pantry. We helped unload the truck, and that made it so much easier for us than going to Ogden to get the food. In this pantry we also collected and gave out household furniture and other household items, as well as mattresses we received free from a Serta Mattress facility. Eventually we outgrew that building and found a larger one up the road in about 2010, which is our current location. We recently acquired more space in the back of our building where we now store pallets of food. The Center of Hope is divided into a Pantry on one side and a Thrift Store on the other. There, we receive two deliveries of food from the Utah Food Bank twice a month, and serve more than 600 people a month. For Thanksgiving this year we served 52 families and gave out turkeys to each family. We get new families each month; in August it was 12, and in September 11. We have actually outgrown our current facility and have started a capital campaign to try to find a larger facility to more appropriately accommodate the Pantry and Thrift Store and expand the Thrift Store to carry more items. Currently we are having to turn down donations. Please visit our website at ladiesofcharitynorthernutah.org to learn more about us. Bobby Earl, our current LOC president, had the dream to one day have a Thrift Store after attending the National Assembly in New Orleans in 2015, and this summer it became a reality. All proceeds from the Thrift Store will support the Center of Hope, which is under the direction of Sr. Germaine and the Daughters of Charity. Once Sr. Germaine retires, the Daughters of Charity will no longer be our sponsor, so the Center of Hope will have to be self-sufficient. As a result, the Ladies of Charity are trying to find additional ways to support the Center of Hope and the Thrift Store is one way we hope to do just that. On May 11, the Ladies of Charity hosted an open house for the Thrift Store, which opened on July 2, and during the celebration, Father Andrzej Skrzypiec, pastor of St. Olaf Parish, blessed the expanded Center of Hope. Among the guests were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Davis County Utah Communications Council, which helps support the Food Pantry with donations. Members of the council also raise money for the food pantry and bring items from the LDS Church’s Bishops Storehouse to the Ladies of Charity Fill the Fridge program for those in need. “We do this because we are serving Christ in those who need our assistance; therefore, it’s not a job, it’s a ministry,” said Sr. Germaine during the open house. “There are many groups who assist us including St. Olaf Council of Catholic Women, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Performance Automotive Group, who is currently paying our rent thanks to Patricia Byrne, and others who randomly drop off donations. John Hollingshead, the council’s director, said usually when they donate they go through Catholic Charities, but “We love what is going on here.” Chad and Susie Gardner, members of the council, help organize the volunteers from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They pick up food and supplies from the Bishop’s Storehouse to deliver to the Center of Hope. The Ladies of Charity also participate in picking up food from the Bishop’s Storehouse for the Fill the Fridge program. Chad Gardner also arranged a $20,000 grant so the Center of Hope could receive eggs, milk, cheese, fruit, and extra supplies such as diapers, which are in great demand. “We always have extra items and fresh food every week,” said Chad. “We pick up the extra food from Dick’s Market and then your ladies and our volunteers pick it up from us. This grant makes it so on any given week we have extra.” “You guys couldn’t be kinder,” said Susie. “You will have to let us know what you need.” The Ladies of Charity do what they can to enhance the quality of life for people who are on the brink of having basically nothing. If they supplement families with food, hopefully those in need can pay bills and eat during the week.