Volunteers sort through nearly four tons of food donated by the Paducah/McCracken County Community at the St. Vincent de Paul Help Center in Paducah. COURTESY OF SUZANNE WARREN, ST. VINCENT DE PAUL
Every role is important: Serving Paducah neighbors with St. Vincent de Paul’s Help Center
BY SUZANNE WARREN, SPECIAL TO THE WESTERN KENTUCKY CATHOLIC
No two days are alike in the day-to-day operation of the St. Vincent de Paul Help Center in Paducah. Our help center offers financial and food assistance to our neighbors in need. We never know if we’ll see two people or a bus from a local apartment complex with 15 people needing help of one sort or another. Every job at the help center is important, from intake volunteers Gloria and Jan who sit at the front desk offering a friendly face and compassion, to the volunteers in the food pantry who fill the food orders.
Our food pantry is a job in itself but we love it. We work with Feeding America and other groups, plus food donations from individuals. But the most exciting time for our food pantry is when Paducah Power System and Wagner Moving and Storage arrive and start unloading large industrial-sized containers from Christmas in the Park and the local school challenge. This took place on Feb. 4, and our volunteer Mike White was prepared, having planned ahead in January to make space for the deliveries.
Greg McKeel of McKeel Equipment Company brings his forklift to lift the containers out of Wagner’s truck, and then we use a pallet jack to move them into our building. Our next phase is sorting and checking the food items by type and date. All food should last until September.
If you live in the Paducah area and have a few hours to spare, come to St. Vincent de Paul’s Help Center any Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday and we’ll find you something to do.
And God bless everyone who donated food and money! We recently received a nice check that will go toward financial assistance to our neighbors in need.
If you would like to make a financial donation, please mail it to P.O. Box 8433, Paducah, KY, 42002.
Suzanne Warren is a member of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.
Originally printed in the March 2026 issue of The Western Kentucky Catholic.
