I would like to thank my wife Joan Moran for writing this newsletter for the past 28 years. She has decided that she no longer wants to do it. It has become harder and harder for her to come up with new ideas! But I thank her from the bottom of my heart for doing it for all these years!
BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN WE ARE STOPPING!
HELP WANTED: Friar Suppliers is in need of someone who can write a reflection letter for our monthly newsletter. It can be a reflection on a Franciscan Saints feast day or something that you read. It MUST be 100% CATHOLIC. No more than 2 pages and it just needs to be sent to our email by the 20th of the month so we can send it to the printer. I can send you our letterhead so it comes in all ready to go! Please pray about it and call me at (631) 682-4298 if you are interested or have questions.
This past September God again blessed the CFRs with 12 new Postulants for the Friars and 4 lovely Candidates for the Sisters! That brings the number of Religious we are feeding to about 160! I'm very thankful to all of you who help me feed the CFRs each month!
For years we have taken care of anyone who wants to enter the Community, but has special food issues. Gluten-free, Lactose-free, and all the other “Frees” you can think of. Last year we had only 6 Friars and Sisters but this year we have 18!
I found an easy way to shop on AMAZON so I can get the extreme quantities that I need. For example, this month I needed 32 loaves of UDIs Bread, 37 boxes of rice pasta, and 12 loaves of Ezekiel bread. It’s crazy but necessary because it’s SPECIAL. The cost of each loaf of bread is at least $7.00 and that is a bargain compared to my local supermarket.
Each month we do about ¼ of our shopping at BJs and COSTCO because of convenience and price. Every month I sit and clip coupons for items we buy a lot of. Butter, mouthwash, coffee, sandwich bags, ketchup, mustard, and bathroom cleaner oils, just to mention a few. My monthly coupon saving is usually at least $300! I need to make YOUR MONEY GO THE FURTHEST! I'm sure I don’t need to tell you about the prices of food these days. I see it each and every month. But you always allow me to pay the bills for which I'm thankful and so are the Friars and Sisters!
NOVEMBER THANKSGIVING THANKS!
It takes a small army of people to get what we do done! The room where we store the Friar’s things was built in 1929! Years ago I used it to grow Orchids for the Florist I owned. But over the years it has started to fall apart! There were multiple holes in the walls. Last week RUAN AQUIRRE and PEDRO CAMPOVERDE came and knocked down the old wall and put up a new wall and even painted it. We are very thankful!
George Clancy is my BJs shopper. Every month he goes and picks up the food from Bjs and packs it into boxes. Andy, John, Jim, and Zack are my UHAUL LOADERS. For almost 20
years they have come to my house on Thursday and loaded the food that we buy at Restaurant Depot, BJ’s, and pill food from the Friar Room. The truck is ALWAYS COMPLETELY FILLED!
Nancy Black and Marylou Connors are my FOOD ANGELS! Marylou collects food up in Avon, CT and then Nancy and I drive the 4 hours up and back to get the food. George always helps us with the unloading. Daury Duran also helps with this. In the Bronx Chris Liotta, his mom, and Jeff help unload and sort the food. Chris also buys the meat and dairy and brings them in because it doesn’t fit in the UHAUL!
If it weren’t for you and your generous donations none of this would happen. The Friars and Sisters know this. They do ask us why there are not more prayer cards? So if you haven't sent one please do! PLEASE REMEMBER AMAZON SMILES ITS FREE MONEY FOR US!
Yours in Christ’s name,
Charlie Moran
