We use to see Caroline at St. Francis House regularly. She was a single mother with two children and came to get food each month. She also always signed for the Christmas Baskets and gifts every year. Then we stopped seeing her. “One of the things that are worrying is that clients disappear,” says Ms. Jones, head of Social Services. “We don’t know whether they are ill, have passed away, or if they have moved…I know I think about those clients often.
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Recently we had a St. Francis House mystery. “We would come in in the morning, and our pallet outside would have food on it, usually bread from Panera. We didn’t know who was dropping it off; there was never a note, and our deliveries and regular donations came in during the day. When we have extra food to give away to anyone who comes by, we put it out on the pallet. So if there is food on the pallet, people just come and take it. That’s fine, but we have to weigh all food donations before it goes out, so this was not just mysterious, but a little troubling.”
“One day, I was working late and happened to see someone delivering food and putting it on the pallet. It was Caroline!. She had a good job at Panera Bread Co., a new car, and she had been dropping off food after she got off work. She said we had helped her with so many things that she just wanted to give back!”
Caroline will be continuing her after-work donations, and now she knows where to drop them off, and we know she and her children are doing fine!