November 2007 - Sister Frances Vista, D.C.
Since St. Jude Food Bank in Tuba City, Arizona, opened ten years ago, the amount of food that Daughter of Charity Sister Frances Vista distributes annually has grown from a few pallets' worth to more than 190,000 lbs.
During that time, Sister Frances has not only helped feed the Hopi, Navajo, and Southern Paiute Native American Communities here, but has worked steadily to provide nutrition education in this area where obesity and diabetes are prevalent, ongoing concerns.
A diminutive but dynamic presence, Sister Frances has built nothing short of a food co-operative, creating a network of relationships with bulk food providers that enable her to put together what she calls the "Healthy Native Box" or HNB, her own invention, which includes enough provisions for the week for a family at a cost of only $20 per box. But with gasoline prices going through the roof, Sister Frances is finding it more and more difficult to travel to the food distributors to pick up the discounted food.
"For that $20 that families pay, they are getting at least $75 worth of food, but each HNB is costing us more than $20 when you factor in the 15% increased cost of food because of the increased cost of gasoline," she said. Thankfully, a staff of 11- to 12-volunteers does all the packing of the food boxes and help out with stocking shelves. Without that help, there would be no way to accommodate this great need in America's poorest mission diocese.
Not long ago, a Native American student from Johns Hopkins University visited the St. Jude Food Bank and made a comment that startled Sister Frances. "For Native Americans," the student said, "Commodity food has become traditional food." The notion that Native Americans were so used to eating U.S.D.A. handouts that they had given up traditional fare lit a fire under Sister Frances, and she resolved to change that bleak perspective by providing good, nutritious food at an affordable price.
"I have seen a change in people when they move from receiving handouts to partnering and making budgets to purchase their food," she said. "A certain pride takes hold - and it's a pride that hopefully they will pass on to their children." Still, those who are hungry and cannot pay are not turned away from St. Jude Food Bank.
Sister Frances does more than tend to the food distribution chores at St. Jude. She's an advocate for nutrition education and money management and conducts Family Wellness classes (left). She is working hard to move people from dependence to independence by fostering a feeling of self-worth and self-esteem in them. People have responded by showing their appreciation and demonstrating a willingness to pitch in and help. Students from the local high school now help pack the HNB's, and help clean the warehouse.
"We now have families that pre-pay for their HNBs, when, before, they would spend whatever they had and a few weeks later be without food once again," she said. "St. Vincent de Paul said that the poor will always be very demanding, and that's true, but I have seen the people here become much more respectful and supportive of the program."
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