Meraux Foundation Helps Community Center Feed the Hungry

The Arlene and Joseph Meraux Charitable Foundation recently donated $20,000 to the Community Center of St. Bernard to help feed the hungry in St. Bernard Parish.

“The Community Center of St. Bernard serves a critical role in our community, providing for the hungry. We are proud to support the nonprofit so that it can carry on its important work,” said Rita Gue, the president of the Meraux Foundation, who, along with other board members, recently toured the Community Center’s facility on Pamela St. in Arabi.

The Community Center is a Second Harvest food distribution site and runs the BackPack Program that sends home food for the weekend for local elementary school students who need it.

Chair of the Board of the Community Center Pamela Pamela Wegener said, “We cannot thank the Meraux Foundation enough for all their support throughout the years and, not just monetary support, but also for the encouragement we receive from them. We especially want to thank Ms. Rita, who has been a mentor to the vice-chair and myself. Everyone on the board has helped us and gotten their hands dirty. They’ve just been our angels.”

The Meraux Foundation’s donation will go toward buying food and supporting programs.

“We are a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, and we survive on grants. This money from the Meraux Foundation will allow the Community Center to keep our full time director on staff and to initiate programs,” Wegener continued. “The Meraux Foundation has played an integral part in the Community Center for as long as I can remember. Their involvement and support go back to the very beginning.”

Wegener said that the Community Center was able to start the BackPack Program within the first month of school this year because of the most recent funding the Meraux Foundation provided.

At the Community Center, clients who qualify are able to pick up food for their families once a month.

For more information on the Community Center of St. Bernard, visit http://www.facebook.com/CCSTB, call  call 504-518-5968, or email tocommunitycenterstb@gmail.com.