Martin Luther King Jr. once said that “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’”
Father Demetrio Lorden would have had no difficulty answering that question, as doing for others was his life’s work. In fact, back in the late 1990s, he recognized hunger all around him and did something about it.
Father Lorden started a monthly collection at the mission called Project Hunger in December 1999 and called it Our Lady’s Pantry. Thanks to these monthly dollars from parishioners, the Knights of Columbus and their wives purchased lots of nutritious food and gave it away after Mass each week to anyone who needed it. Twenty-five families took food home with them that first week. It was just the beginning. Soon, parishioners of Prince of Peace contributed more money to Project Hunger to buy even more food.
Before long, Our Lady’s Pantry outgrew the two tiny rooms it had in the back of the mission to store all the food volunteers wanted to give out. So, Father Lorden gave the pantry a new home in the classroom building, where it remains today, growing bigger each year.
Families in the migrant Latino community were among the earliest recipients of food. But word spread quickly, and the pantry kept growing. Today, the pantry distributes tens of thousands of pounds of food every Saturday morning to individuals and families coming from Apollo Beach, Balm, Gibsonton, Riverview, Ruskin and Sun City Center, as well as Wimauma.
This past December, 25 years after its start, Project Hunger collections, inspired by Father Lorden, have likely put food on the tables of hundreds of thousands of men, women and children in Hillsborough County so that all who are hungry may be fed.
Tom Bullaro, current director of Our Lady’s Pantry, first met Father Lorden back in 2004, when he and his wife, Anita, moved to Florida from Pennsylvania. They joined Our Lady of Guadalupe Mission Church, learned about Our Lady’s Pantry and started volunteering.
“Anita and I thought pantry was pretty awesome,” said Bullaro. “It is a great way to give back to God for all he does for us. Father Demetrio personally greeted us, saying, ‘Welcome, and thank you for helping us.’ He was a quiet and friendly priest, very nice to talk with.
“I became director in 2008, with Anita joining me in that role soon afterwards. We worked alongside of Father in doing whatever was needed to keep the pantry running. He was always helpful and never said we were feeding too many people.
“He came over to the pantry all the time too, personally thanking everyone for volunteering their ‘time and knowledge,’ as he would put it.
“Father Demetrio was beloved as a person, and as a priest. He was greatly missed after he was seriously injured in his accident in December 2013, when he went back to Spain. May God bless him in Heaven. Amen.”
A beautiful memorial Mass for Father Lorden was held in Our Lady of Guadalupe Mission on March 17, which was attended by hundreds of parishioners, many of whom had benefited from the Project Hunger resource begun by Father Lorden 25 years earlier.
The pantry is located at 16650 U.S. 301 in Wimauma. For more information, visit www.ourladyspantry.com.
