Big Red Box event at St. Rita, N.O., reaches out to food-insecure

Above, at right: Janie Glade, founder of the anti-hunger non-profit Gladewaves, dispenses to-go meals at the “Big Red Box,” a 24/7 pantry located outside St. Rita Church in New Orleans that is stocked by the St. Rita parish and school community in partnership with Gladewaves. The no-barrier pantry contains a steady supply of snacks, pop-top meals and kitchen staples that food-insecure can pick up on their own. On Dec. 8, volunteers from Gladewaves and St. Rita dispensed 150 hot meals next to the newly decorated pantry.

Story and photos by Beth Donze

With picture-perfect weather on their side, staff from the local non-profit Gladewaves and volunteers from St. Rita Church in New Orleans celebrated Christmas a few weeks early on Dec. 8 by dispensing 150 hot, grab-and-go meals at St. Rita’s “Big Red Box” – a fire-engine red food pantry open 24/7 outside the church at 2729 Lowerline Street.

The Big Red Box program, founded by Gladewaves in 2017, partners with New Orleans-area churches and other organizations to erect and maintain barrier-free, self-serve pantries whose contents can be accessed by anyone in need.

Prominently wedged between the church and St. Mary’s Dominican High School, St. Rita’s Big Red Box is stocked daily with snacks, fresh fruit, pop-top meals, canned goods and other staples the food-insecure can take from the pantry themselves and either eat on the spot or take home to round out meals.

“As soon as our (Big Red) Box is filled, it’s emptied – and that just goes to show you the food insecurity of those who truly need it and are benefitting from it in the community,” said Brittany Breaux, a St. Rita Church and School social worker who helps coordinate the pantry and its flow of donations.

“The most popular items are cereal bars and pop-top foods like ravioli, tuna, Vienna sausage and Ramen noodles,” Breaux said. “Things that can be eaten, right then and there, tend to be the most popular.”

St. Rita’s Big Red Box, now in its third year of operation, is stocked three days a week by Gladewaves and twice a week by the St. Rita Church and School community, Breaux said.

Generosity ripples outward

Although Gladewaves’ eight New Orleans-area Big Red Boxes are set up in a manner in which the food insecure can take what they need – no questions asked – those who happened upon the Dec. 8 meals distribution were surprised with a pre-cooked, pre-packaged lunch of red beans and rice, salad and bread for themselves and their children. The to-go meals were dispensed, “first-come, first-served,” until they ran out.

Gert Town resident Marcia Freeman picked up a few extra meals to take to her elderly and homebound friends.

“Some of them live alone and depend on neighbors to do things they can’t do for themselves,” Freeman said. “One of my neighbors usually walks to the grocery store, but sometimes she’ll call me up and ask me to pick up some things for her, because she is getting to the point where she can’t always walk that far anymore.”

Upon her arrival at St. Rita, Freeman placed four boxes of ready-to-eat snacks from her own grocery store run into the Big Red Box – a pay-it-forward effort that embraces the pantry’s posted motto: “Take What You Need, Leave What You Can.”

“My grandkids and I will come on a Sunday and try to fill (the pantry) up after Mass,” Freeman said. “I think it’s a big positive in the community; it’s needed, especially at the end of the month, when people are trying to stretch those dollars. We usually hear people say, ‘This is a long month – 31 days’ –  because people are waiting for their checks to come in on the first of the month.”

Earlier in the week, Gladewaves and one of its supporting local businesses, NOLA Flora, decorated all eight Big Red Boxes with Christmas garlands and lights to call attention to the problems of area hunger and food insecurity. In addition to the special event at St. Rita, Gladewaves hosted two other hot-meal distributions at its pantries this month, including one with its other Catholic pantry partner, Our Lady of Prompt Succor Church in Chalmette.

The Big Red Box Program was founded by community leader, philanthropist, cardiologist’s wife and former special events planner Janie Glade, whose previous experiences as a single mother personally acquainted her with the struggles many families endure to make ends meet and provide for their children.

Donations of non-perishable foods can be placed directly in the pantry or brought to collection boxes during weekend Masses. Glade said at least two more pantry sites are scheduled to be erected in the coming year. For information on how churches and organizations can partner with Gladewaves to operate a Big Red Box, email Glade at [email protected].