Words like “rare,” “exceptional” and “fine” might come to mind when one enters Mount Carmel Guild, Trenton. But the words are not about describing the structure of the pre-Civil War Italianate villa – as majestic and rich as it may be. It’s the people.

For 90 years, Mount Carmel Guild staff and volunteers have been working with the poor, feeding them, providing emergency assistance and caring for the vulnerable, both young and old.

Even as the agency works to meet the increased need caused by the poor economy, including a 24 percent rise in the amount of food distributions that occurred in a year’s time, the guild commemorated its 90th anniversary of service to the community Oct. 17 with a Mass of Thanksgiving celebrated by Bishop John M. Smith in St. Mary of the Assumption Cathedral, Trenton.

The celebration was an occasion to bring together all past and present volunteers, board of director presidents, executive secretaries and executive directors and “honor them for their service,” said Marie Gladney, who assumed the position of executive director in August 2009.

The day also offered “a good opportunity to once again let the public know that we’re there and we’re there to serve,” Gladney said.

Affectionately referring to Mount Carmel Guild as being “one of the best kept secrets” in Trenton, Gladney said, “We’ve been a steady source of service and help to those in need for 90 years.” 

Distinguished History
The Mount Carmel Guild was started in January, 1920, by Bishop Thomas J. Walsh, third Bishop of Trenton. It was an idea he brought to the Trenton Diocese from his previous position as bishop of the Diocese of Buffalo.

That year, the diocese purchased a home at 73 North Clinton Avenue to house the organization. The home was formerly owned by a wealthy Trenton family that made its fortune from the city’s thriving pottery industry. Anne Brearley, widow of Charles Brearley, president of Greenwood Pottery, sold the home to the diocese for $21,500.

Bishop Smith, in his homily, spoke of Mount Carmel Guild and the “tremendous history” it has had in “working for God’s poor for 90 years” and how it has had to adapt its services according to the needs of the time – helping people during the Great Depression in the 1930s and during World War II in the 1940s; expanding its services in the 1950s and 1960s; beginning a nursing program in the 1970s and then having to deal with financial cutbacks and radical changes in the 1980s and 1990s.

However, “the constant” in the past 90 years, Bishop Smith said, “has been the need of the people who have lived in our community and the goodness, generosity and caring shown by people who have been involved in this wonderful apostolate of Mount Carmel Guild.”

“Today is a day of thanksgiving and of celebration for so many people,” said Bishop Smith of the staff and all the volunteers “who have generously given of their time, talent and treasure to continue this great work, and to Archbishop Walsh for his vision of this great gift of Mount Carmel Guild.” 

How the Guild Helps
Today, the guild directs its energies into two areas of service: the Emergency Assistance Program, which has been opened to citizens in need since 1921, and a Home Health Nursing Program, available since 1941.

With its Home Health Nursing Program, the guild is able to provide services to the sick and elderly patients in their homes. The service is offered when other options such as Medicare and Medicaid are exhausted and the poor have nowhere else to turn. Corinne Janoska, a registered nurse, oversees the program with Sharon Temple, a licensed practical nurse. Nurses help the sick by regulating medication and filling insulin syringes, giving injections, checking blood pressure, assisting with wound care and performing health screenings. The nurses’ main role, however, are to serve as the primary form of human contact for many of the clients who often have difficulty leaving their homes.

More than anything else, Mount Carmel Guild is best known for its emergency assistance to the poor.

Located in what was once the carriage house, the Emergency Assistance Program today operates under the direction of Dominican Sister Loretta Maggio and helps out by providing folks with a three-to-five day supply of food every 30 days.

Noting current statistics and the ways that the present-day economy has generated the need for the guild to increase its aid, Gladney said the Emergency Assistance Program has grown to provide food to some 7,000 families in 2009, feeding more than 18,000 people. She said the agency served 912 families with Thanksgiving food baskets in 2008; however, that number rose to 1,016 families for Thanksgiving 2009. The total number of food baskets that the agency distributed in 2009 rose to 20,450, which was a “24 percent increase to what we had given out before,” she said.

Gladney pointed out that in order to assist qualified families of schoolaged children in the Trenton school system, the Emergency Assistance program recently introduced a new initiative to provide the families with an extra bag of food each month that includes breakfast and lunch items such as dry cereals, crackers and cartons of juice. Due to cutbacks in funding, there are families who no longer qualify for the subsidized breakfast and lunch program that’s offered by the Trenton schools. In order for those families to have access to the breakfast program, they would have to pay for it.

Within the Emergency Assistance Program, the guild also offers a Comprehensive Nutritional Care program that’s funded by the State of New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services. Clients diagnosed with HIV/AIDS have access to a variety of specialized services from nutritional counseling to the provision of multivitamin and protein supplements, and those with other conditions, such as diabetes, can learn more about how to stay healthy and can receive groceries that better suit their condition. 

Helping Hands and Hearts
Among the throng of volunteers present for the Oct. 17 Mass was Rita Evans of St. Joan of Arc Parish, Marlton. Evans told of how her parish assists the guild, especially at holiday time by collecting food and turkeys at Thanksgiving, toys for Christmas and baskets and hams for Easter.

Students in St. Joan of Arc’s eighth grade Confirmation class have also helped out at the guild, Evans said. Last year’s confirmandi painted the storage room in the Emergency Assistance building, and thanks to their efforts, the room, which is on the second floor, went from being a drab green to a “bright and cheery” yellow room.

This year, the confirmandi will paint the outside fence that surrounds the guild complex.

“It’s our obligation (as Catholic Christians) to follow the Gospel and Mount Carmel Guild gives our parishioners a chance to live out their Catholic faith,” Evans said.

Msgr. Joseph C. Shenrock has been an advocate of the guild for many years. He came to know about the agency’s work during the years he was diocesan vicar for social concerns, and he also rallied members of the parishes where he served as pastor – Blessed Sacrament, Trenton, and later St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Whiting – to become involved by hosting weekly food and monetary collections and serving as volunteers. To see Mount Carmel Guild celebrate its 90th anniversary, means “that we’re celebrating a great event in the history of our diocese,” Msgr. Shenrock said.

Then quoting what his dear priest friend and noted Scripture scholar, Father Raymond Brown, had once said, “that there are two things that are so important when it comes to following Christ – the Eucharist and concern for the poor,” Msgr. Shenrock said. “Mount Carmel Guild has surely been concerned with the poor and following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ for 90 years.”