CHARLOTTE — In a remarkable partnership, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also known as the Mormon Church) donated more than 10,000 pounds of food for families in need to the Catholic Charities food pantry in Charlotte March 25.
The churches enlisted logistical help from Loaves & Fishes, a Charlotte nonprofit that also provides food for the hungry, which transported the food donation to Catholic Charities to distribute directly to people in need.
The partnership was born last year as the pandemic hit and the Mormon Church was among those stepping up to help stock Catholic Charities’ Charlotte food pantry. The church grows its own food on farms for charitable distribution around the country, and counts more than 70 congregations in western North Carolina. Since the beginning of 2020, it has delivered more than 2 million pounds of food to the Carolinas from its main food production site in Salt Lake City. Other recent donations have included 104 Rubbermaid Easter “baskets” filled with items for the Charlotte food pantry, provided by families from St. Matthew Church in Charlotte, and hats and scarves for Catholic Charities to give people during food pantry distribution in Winston-Salem, provided by a confirmation student and sponsor from Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in High Point. During the pandemic, Catholic Charities has been serving people in need through its three food pantries in Charlotte, Asheville and Winston-Salem – last year providing 663,000 pounds of food to over 11,000 people.
— Photos provided and via Facebook
At www.ccdoc.org: Learn more about how you can donate, volunteer or give to help Catholic Charities serve people in need across the Diocese of Charlotte
WINSTON-SALEM — Brothers Christopher and Craig Shores remember their father David Shores as a faithful mentor who quietly practiced his Catholic faith. When Shores passed away last August at 78, he left a $92,000 estate gift, of which $45,000 was used to establish an endowment benefiting the little mission that he loved: Our Lady of Fatima Chapel.
The David Shores Endowment will benefit the downtown chapel, a mission church of Our Lady of Mercy Parish and one of the diocese’s smallest missions, where Shores and his family regularly attended Mass for nearly 50 years.
Our Lady of Fatima Chapel was established in 1954 to serve a large influx of Western Electric employees who relocated from New Jersey. Located on the corner of Third and Cherry streets, it is a small gray brick building originally built in the early 1900s as the city’s first public library. An influx of Hispanic Catholics in the 1990s added to the community’s diversity, and now its parishioners come from more than 10 countries.
Craig Shores said his late mother Donna and his father, a law professor at Wake Forest University, loved the church’s diversity.
“My parents believed in diversity, so going to St. Benedict Church was one of those experiences. We went to Sunday school there, and visited St. Leo the Great Church a bit, too, but our family felt most comfortable at Our Lady of Fatima Chapel,” he said.
“I remember one Christmas, when Mom and Dad invited a gentleman from Our Lady of Fatima over for Christmas Day dinner,” recalled Christopher Shores. “A recent exile from Chile during the Pinochet regime, he spoke very little English, and had virtually no friends or family in town.”
“It was obvious to me, even as a kid, how moved he was to be included in our family’s Christmas. At some point in the evening, he turned to my brother and me and said, ‘Your father is a great man.’ Dad, embarrassed by the grandiosity of the compliment, laughed and brushed it off, but it was good to hear. Dad’s incurable humility would never allow that notion to be even hinted at, let alone expressed, but I knew it was true,” he said.
Longtime friends Pat Roach and Charlie Rose also saw firsthand Shores’ humility and generous spirit.
“He was humble, in the background, but if anyone needed anything he was first in line to help,” Roach said.
“David was a very loyal friend – faithful, with a quiet demeanor. He was the person you could rely on,” Rose added.
Father Carl Zdancewicz, pastor of Our Lady of Mercy Church and Our Lady of Fatima Chapel, said the endowment gives him peace of mind.
“I am really grateful for it,” he said.
The chapel remains in good shape following its renovation in 2002, he noted, but the Shores endowment will enable future repairs to be funded without having to draw upon parishioner donations.
“With this endowment gift, 15 of our 18 mission churches now have endowment funds,” said Jim Kelley, diocesan director of development. “Mission churches are typically our smaller churches and it is wonderful that individuals like David Shores think about those special churches in their estate plans.”
Create an endowment
Interested in setting up an endowment at your parish or Catholic school? Establish an endowment in the Diocese of Charlotte Foundation by leaving a bequest in a will, a beneficiary designation from a retirement plan, a gift of real estate, a gift of life insurance, cash or securities sufficient to set up an endowment, or a life income arrangement such as a trust or annuity.
For details, contact Gina Rhodes at 704-370-3364 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
— SueAnn Howell, Senior reporter