4 DECEMBER 9, 2021 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Glendale church set to host Lady of Guadalupe celebration
BY JULIA MORO
EDITORIAL@QNS.COM
@QNS
The St. Pancras Church in Glendale
is rebuilding and looking
to become more inclusive aft er
a scandal last year involved a pastor
sharing sexually explicit photos and
texts with a minor.
Aft er the church removed Pastor
Francis Hughes, 65, for inappropriate
communication with a minor in
2020, his replacement, Pastor Steven
Aguggia, has been making an eff ort
to include the Latino community,
which he said has been forgotten in
the church.
This weekend, the church will hold
a celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe
on the night of Saturday, Dec. 11.
Aguggia said that when he came
into the parish, he noticed the Latino
community was not being served as
it should be.
“We tried to start a ministry to reach
out to them,” Aguggia said. “It’s a recognition
of the community that is here
and building upon that.”
Juan Perez, the director of Faith
Formation at St. Pancras, said this
is the fi rst time the church has done
things in Spanish and it started with
a prayer group back in January.
“We have been building the Latino
community within the parish there
are a lot of Latinos around St. Pancras
but there was nothing in Spanish,”
St. Pancras Church in Glendale Photo by Juan Perez
Perez said. “The new pastor came
with these great ideas of rebuilding
the parish. We were hurt by what
happened with the last pastor here.
Part of the rebuilding was bringing
the Latino community to the parish.”
The Lady of Guadalupe celebration
will take place Saturday, Dec. 11, from
9:30 p.m. into the early hours of Sunday,
Dec. 12, with music, mariachi
bands and prayer. Perez said the
Lady of Guadalupe is the patron of
the Mexican people and having this
celebration is a big deal for the Latino
community.
Perez said that Bible classes for
Spanish-speakers are now available,
with the goal of building a stable
community. Later, the church plans
to introduce a Spanish mass every
weekend on Sunday aft ernoons.
Ridgewood-area food pantries call for continued city funding
BY JULIA MORO
EDITORIAL@QNS.COM
@QNS
As New York City continues to
navigate the COVID-19 pandemic,
there is still signifi cant demand
for food pantry services. However,
pantries in the Ridgewood area are
worried about operating if city funds
aren’t continued through the new year.
Local food pantries like Woodbine,
Fenix Community Fridge and Hungry
Monk rely on the Pandemic Food
Reserve Emergency Distribution Program
(P-FRED) to provide for families
struggling with food insecurity. But as
a new mayoral administration takes
over, local pantries are concerned that
priorities will shift and funding for this
program will be diverted elsewhere —
even though there is still a great need
for it.
Matt Peterson, an organizer at
Woodbine, said there is great concern
for the future of their pantry without
the P-FRED program.
“The line for our food pantry hasn’t
shrunk much over the last year, the
need and the demand is still high, but
donors and suppliers have dried up,”
Peterson said. “There’s still a need to
maintain this funding and to not abandon
these families and communities.”
Woodbine receives donations from
many businesses and donors, but Peterson
said the largest contributor is the
city’s P-FRED program.
“There’s some nervousness about how
indefi nitely we’ll be able to maintain
the food pantry if those services don’t
maintain themselves,” Peterson said.
“We’re not certain how long the contract
lasts for.”
Peterson mentioned that even though
the city has made it through the worst of
the pandemic — with a citywide vaccination
rate now at 70% — many families
still feel the harsh eff ects of the past
two years.
“There’s this tendency to want to
move on from the pandemic and move
on from the crisis, and for many people,
they’re able to do that economically, but
a lot of people can’t,” Peterson said. “The
crisis is still felt by a lot of people in a
deep way, including a lot of people in
Ridgewood. Without P-FRED, we would
be in a much tighter spot.”
Hungry Monk alone served about
10,000 families a week during the
height of the pandemic — that number
has since dropped to 3,000 families a
week. Hungry Monk also mainly relies
on the P-FRED program to serve the
community.
Father Mike Lopez, the leader of Hungry
Monk, said that he blames elected
offi cials who have not supported the
food banks in the area.
“I think our local elected offi cials have
failed tremendously in securing food
for our community,” Lopez said. “They
haven’t been involved as much as they
should have. Ridgewood is still highly
food-insecure. It’s a shame that our local
electeds are so out of touch with that.”
The mayor’s offi ce and Mayor-elect
Eric Adams did not respond to requests
for comment by publication.
Woodbine opened a new location as operations grew in 2020.
Photo courtesy of Woodbine
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