The motto of Father Jean Claude Mbassi, a priest of the Sacred Heart of Jesus order, is a simple four-word phrase: “Good deeds improve community.”
A native of Cameroon, Father Mbassi first arrived in the United States in 2021 for his new assignment—serving the people of the Lower Brule Indian Reservation in the middle of South Dakota until his departure in June 2025. The population in Lower Brule is just over 700, with some estimating that 40% live below poverty. Father Mbassi witnessed literal cries for food.
“I saw the misery of the people,” said Father Mbassi. “Many were coming to me saying, ‘Father, we are starving. Can you do something for us?'”
Sadly, these pleas continue today, not only in Lower Brule, but throughout the country. Food insecurity in rural America is especially prevalent due to increasing grocery prices and limited access to grocery stores. What’s more, according to a 2025 study by the nonprofit Feeding America, seniors and children in rural areas are particularly at risk. Some rural counties are seeing child food insecurity rates as high as 50 percent.
What is clear, seen through many who approach Father Mbassi and in countless similar situations throughout rural America, is that people turn to the Church for help.
In hard times, people believe that the Church will not only open its doors but find ways to go out and help. Moreover, the Church does not judge. Rather, the Church sees Christ in those who come to the door, realizing that one cannot tend to the soul while the body goes hungry. Father Mbassi certainly felt called to the hungry in Lower Brule’s embrace. He said, “We are all better when we improve the lives of others.”
Catholic Extension Society ensures that the Church’s presence remains strong, particularly in areas like these where pastoral care and charitable service are needed the most.
The doors are open
With the support of Catholic Extension Society, Father Mbassi was able to start the Feeding Our Families project to help alleviate food costs for those in need. The project allowed Father Mbassi to provide vouchers to a local grocery store. In 2025, Father Mbassi was able to distribute over 700 vouchers to help people buy groceries.
When accounting for average household size, we estimate his food program impacted up to half of the households on the reservation.
It was an outreach that was fruitful both for those receiving the vouchers and for Father Mbassi and his team at St. Mary’s Catholic Church. He explained, “They really appreciate the project. It is very helpful. But that same project helped me and our pastoral team create a social connection with the whole Lower Brule community, not just parishioners.”
Father Mbassi added,
Feeding Our Families was a way to let them know that we are open. The doors of the Church are open to you.”
One Native American grandmother was so deeply moved by St. Mary’s compassion to her and her family through the Feeding Our Families program that she asked to be baptized into the Catholic Church. She came to know Catholicism through the compassion shared with her.
The grandmother told Father Mbassi, “I could not imagine that such generosity still existed in the world.”
Looking out for each other
Some 1,200 miles southeast of Lower Brule is another rural faith community coming together to feed its hungry. Catholic Extension Society has supported a vibrant Black Catholic community, Sacred Heart Parish in Camden, Mississippi, for decades.
With a population of just over 1,100 and few local resources, older residents face challenges when it comes to finding consistent, nutritious meals due to fixed incomes and limited access to grocery stores.
But just like St. Mary’s in Lower Brule, Sacred Heart in Camden opens its doors as a church and reaches out. The parish operates a food pantry fueled by various donations from different food distributors and churches across the county. Their main goal is to bag nutritious meals for their seniors, an outreach that feeds 75 people daily.
What’s more, several people who receive meals from the program give back by volunteering to help others involved. After picking up their own meals at the parish, they will drive additional lunches to their neighbors who cannot get to the church themselves. It’s a true meals-on-wheels approach rooted in loving your neighbor.
The people there are proud. Cherie Evans, who manages Sacred Heart’s Family Center, said of the community, “Camden is the best-kept secret in rural Mississippi. We definitely look out for each other.”
Catholics make up a small 2-3% of the population in Mississippi, but the food pantry at Sacred Heart extends its outreach to the entire community. In turn, Evans sees gratitude from those served. Similar to Father Mbassi’s encounter with the grandmother in Lower Brule, she recalled one non-Catholic mother of six who started attending Mass at Sacred Heart with her children.
“She sees that she’s not alone, she has people that care,” Evans said. “She’s going to embrace the church because the church is embracing her.”
“Give people hope”
In both Camden and Lower Brule, Father Mbassi’s priestly motto certainly rings true: “Good deeds improve community.” Each parish continues to take up efforts to feed their neighbors that are most in need. In turn there is gratitude from those served and a spark within themselves to help the Church in its embrace to those going through something similar.
Grocery stores in these rural communities will continue to be few and far between. Food costs are still high. But the people in these rural towns have a way to take care of each other through their local churches—St. Mary’s, Sacred Heart, and the like across the country. Because the doors of the Church will always be open to both receive and offer help.
“Give people hope. Let them know that there is joy when it seems like there is darkness or sadness or despair. We are bringing comfort and giving love where it is needed. We are trying to create a place where we are showing acts of kindness,” Evans said.
Catholic Extension Society works in solidarity with people to build up vibrant and transformative Catholic faith communities among the poor in the poorest regions of America. Please support our mission!
