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IN THE NEWS...

 
 
Billy Riley a perfect fit for Worcester’s St. Pat’s Parade
By Mark Sullivan 

WORCESTER - Growing up the seventh in a family of 16 children, Billy Riley appreciated early on the challenge involved in feeding a small army.

“Both my parents worked two jobs, and every day my mother had enough food on the table for all of us,” recalled Mr. Riley, director of the soup kitchen at St. John’s Church on Temple Street and grand marshal of this Sunday’s Worcester County St. Patrick’s Parade...

 
 
Busy soup kitchen at St. John’s adds to its Worcester space
By Mark Sullivan 

WORCESTER - One of the best restaurants in the city is tucked beneath the railroad overpass next to St. John’s Church at 44 Temple St.

It serves as many as 500 breakfasts and lunches each weekday. On the menu are fresh-cut fruits and vegetables; eggs daily, with bacon on Wednesdays; and depending on the day, prime rib, chicken, turkey, hot dogs, granola bars, pastries, birthday cake and more...

 
 
Worcester soup kitchen now offers Saturday fruits, vegetables
By Mark Sullivan 

WORCESTER — Free fresh fruits and vegetables will now be available from 9:30 to 11:30 Saturday mornings at the St. Francis Xavier Center soup kitchen and food pantry at St. John’s Church, 20 Temple St., thanks to Stop & Shop Supermarkets.

The weekend hours are new at the St. John’s soup kitchen. The St. Francis Xavier Center regularly serves hot breakfasts to as many as 600 people, including children, five days a week, Monday through Friday. Now fresh produce will be available Saturdays...

 
 
A hearty helping of dignity with every visit to St. John’s Food for the Poor
By Sloane M. Perron 

There’s a lot of good happening at St. Francis Xavier Center in Worcester, and some of it is invisible.

The center’s St. John’s Food for the Poor program “prevents homelessness as much as it feeds the homeless,” said the Rev. John Madden, pastor of St. John’s Catholic Church.

Father Madden’s parish started the program about 12 years ago...

 
 
St. John’s Church expands Worcester soup kitchen
By Bronislaus B. Kush 

The menu was not expansive but the “price” was right.

And, as they do almost every weekday, a number of the area’s needy squeezed Tuesday morning into the basement of St. John’s Roman Catholic Church on Temple Street for what — for many of them— would be their only meal of the day....