“We want to bring to bear for good, but we also want to do that in a very humble and a servant style.”

By Busy Anderson

Patrick Leduc is in pursuit of an answer at the intersection of faith and public service: “How do we best love our neighbors?” 

That’s what he began asking a group of friends who’d meet over breakfast back in 2018. Those sit-downs evolved into the nonprofit Faith Influenced Leaders, which lets professionals put their skills toward efforts guided by religion. The group meets twice a month and has grown to 15 full-time members.

Part of the group’s answer to Leduc’s question? Feeding people. Seeing food insecurity across the city, particularly with kids, compelled Leduc and friends to devise a major response to a major problem. In 2019, their group helped open the South Burlington Food Shelf at 356 Dorset St. 

“We want to bring to bear for good, but we also want to do that in a very humble and a servant style,” said Leduc, 57, the chief operating officer of the Vermont Student Assistance Corp., who also serves as an ordained Catholic deacon. 

The nonprofit handles the money, paperwork and logistics for the food shelf, rather than taking center stage, Leduc said.

Faith Influenced Leaders is now deliberating on a youth mental health initiative and an upgrade to the South Burlington Food Shelf in the wake of climbing demand for its charity. 

A project “gently guided by the Faith Influenced Leaders,” as the group puts it, the South Burlington Food Shelf lives symbiotically with its parent nonprofit, removed from any house of worship so that all feel welcome. 

“We’re kind of the protectors of the food shelf,” said Alan Luzzatto.

Luzzatto, 77, has been volunteering at the food shelf since its opening and later joined Faith Influenced Leaders.

“If there’s anything that I don’t want people to have to make a decision about, it’s food,” Luzzatto said, stressing that food access is mandatory. Luzzatto acts as an intermediary between Faith Influenced Leaders and the South Burlington Food Shelf, applying his experience as a Methodist Protestant, former grocer and school guidance director to the nonprofit’s cause. 

The South Burlington Food Shelf opened in November 2019, just before the pandemic disrupted social services.

“We wouldn’t have said that was a coincidence — we would say we were called to do this, we were put in this position … because that’s when the need really skyrocketed,” said Leduc. 

The food shelf remained open, delivering pre-made donation boxes to people in their cars. “Which served the logistical need of getting people food, but it didn’t serve the need of relationship connection,” said Leduc.

The shelf has now served 1,200 households as its fifth anniversary approaches. Over 40 volunteers help the operation run smoothly three days a week.  

Through a partnership with Food Rescue US, a nonprofit that saves food surplus from becoming waste, South Burlington volunteers pick up between 1,200 and 1,600 pounds of donations from Trader Joe’s each week, according to the shelf’s director, Peter Carmolli. In turn, guests at the food shelf can each walk away with anywhere from 20 to 80 pounds of food.  

“From ’22 to ’23, (visits) increased 44%, and we’re setting records monthly now,” said Carmolli. Carmolli, 60, is not a member of Faith Influenced Leaders but a 25-year veteran of food security efforts like Meals on Wheels. He attends meetings for Faith Influenced Leaders quarterly to update members on what is working and what needs improvement at the food shelf. 

With structural issues like a leaking roof and limited space, the Dorset Street spot is set to be demolished by the end of next year. Now leaders from the two organizations are searching for a space that can welcome more customers and volunteers at once. Carmolli and the nonprofit are looking at buildings — to buy, not rent, they hope.

The success of the food shelf is a good sign for the organizers behind Faith Influenced Leaders’ most recent undertaking. In May, nonprofit leaders hosted an in-person forum on youth mental health to address a crisis they fear is looming over Vermont’s adolescents. 

Preliminary meetings with experts and stakeholders, like the Howard Center and University of Vermont Medical Center Emergency Department, gave context to what they would find, according to Leduc. The conversation uncovered difficulties among students of color to speak openly about their mental health, the dangers of unmonitored technology use and a lack of spaces for young people to go after school. 

In response, members of the group have wondered whether South Burlington students could get their own after-school facility.

“Our neighbors are struggling … if it was my own kid that I love, I would do something,” Leduc said. “Well, these are all of our kids as a community, what can we do to help them? Building a space for them is the right thing to do.” 

In an ideal world, Leduc said, such a drop-in center would be open after school, on the weekends and over the summer for students to find company in peers and caring adults.

“All of our systems are largely built to address the crisis that happens when it happens, there’s very little that is happening in that preventative space,” Leduc said. He hopes a drop-in center would be a proactive step in alleviating mental stress. 

Faith Influenced Leaders plans to present findings from the mental health forum to the South Burlington School District and city council later this year.

Via Community News Service, a University of Vermont journalism internship, on assignment for the Vermont Community Newspaper Group.