Casseroles for a Cause: Radnor Youth Help Saint John’s Hospice Feed Vulnerable Community Members
Ann Marie Santillo felt a calling over a decade ago to volunteer with her two children. Her parish, Saint Thomas of Villanova in Radnor, shared information with her about its partnership with Saint John’s Hospice (SJH) in Philadelphia. SJH, a ministry of Catholic Charities of Philadelphia, serves and assists those experiencing homelessness and poverty in Philadelphia.
Since then, Santillo with her son Bobby, 16, and daughter Katharine, 13, have consistently made and served casseroles to residents of SJH as well as other community members facing hunger. Now, Bobby and Katherine have taken that value of service instilled in them by their mom and have enlisted their own peers to join the effort.
“My kids have gotten really good at this,” Santillo said. “They are pros at making the hot casserole recipe that Saint John’s had recommended. Now fast forward a few years, and [the kids] they’ve figured out how they can do more.”
Rallying the Community Together
Katharine, together with Emily Takefman and Ella Dow – Cadettes of Troop 544 of the Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania – decided they wanted to help. For their Girl Scout Silver Award Take Action Project, the girls led a casseroles ingredient drive at Radnor Middle School and recruited surrounding community members to help make casseroles for SJH’s residents. To amplify these efforts, Bobby, a sophomore of Radnor High School, joined forces with senior Samantha Takefman, Emily’s older sister, to form a club dedicated to making casseroles for SJH and make this effort sustainable.
The high school club and Troop 544’s combined initiative – Casseroles for a Cause – resulted in 50 kids coming together on April 21 and making 400 casseroles. They doubled the number of casseroles made during their first time coming together on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Jan. 20. Both groups plan to make this a semiannual effort going forward.
“Since I was very young, we’ve been making casseroles through our church, and it means a lot to me to have this opportunity to do this,” said Katharine. “For our Silver Award, I thought it would be really important that the Girl Scouts get involved within our community.”
“It’s important as a community to help people in need, especially in Philadelphia, where people going hungry is a big issue,” said Bobby. “And this is a way we can make a dent in that issue.”
Putting a Face to the Need
Angela Shen Takefman, current Troop 544 leader, brainstormed with former leader Ann Marie, to plan visits to SJH so the girls could see for themselves the needs of the men living there and surrounding community members experiencing homelessness. Shen says Casseroles for a Cause is part of a greater effort to expose the girls to realities different from their own.
“We want to expose them, particularly living on the Main Line, to a more normalized distribution of the rest of the world,” Takefman said. “Not everyone has things. We taught them, for example, how to look up bus schedules, trains schedules, buying a ticket … those sorts of things. We’re instilling a bit more community and service into the kids and providing a vision of how others live who might not have the same opportunities.”
During one of the visits to SJH, Shen and the girls were shocked to learn of a stark reality from the SJH kitchen team, who prepares over 133,000 meals annually for residents and guests.
“We found out in talking to them that their casseroles really dropped dramatically in the summertime … that people go on holiday, people go to the shore … and so their inventory virtually drops to zero.”
That sparked a fire in Troop 544 members and Radnor High School students to come together and make a large supply in the spring so that the casseroles can be stored and ready for service in the summer. Radnor High School, Saint Thomas of Villanova, and Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia have lent their freezer space to store the casseroles.
“SJH relies on the generosity of organizations like Troop 544 to ensure that we can provide thousands of nutritious meals each year and extend a hand up to community members who need our help,” said Kris Jaeger, Director of Development and Community Relations for SJH. “Our hearts are full, and we thank them so much for their support.”
A Youth’s Perspective
Samantha from Radnor High School, who as also visited SJH, says the visits are critical.
“The visits show us that it’s more than just food going away to an unknown place,” she said. “Because of going there, we know the faces and we’ve seen the need.”
In addition to making casseroles on April 21, the Girl Scouts also made personal cards for SJH’s residents during the event. Eighth grader Emily Takefman, one of the co-leaders of the event, expressed her appreciation for the initiative.
“What I just love about [Casseroles for a Cause] is there’s so many different arts and aspects of it,” said Emily. We don’t have to be powerful figures to make a difference … we can be just simply 8-year-old Girl Scouts. We can come together and make 400 casseroles. That’s just so cool.”