Parish Social Ministry Spotlight

‘Living Out the Gospel’ at St. Kilian’s in Farmingdale

At 10:30 on a recent Tuesday morning, St. Kilian Parish Social Ministry building in Farmingdale is in full swing. A longtime volunteer packs freshly delivered vegetables into bags, steps from where clients pick up their food at a walk-up window. Another volunteer brings in a pickup from Island Harvest and Long Island Cares. On the other side of the first floor, caseworkers listen and learn about problems, so they can better offer help. Volunteers bag orders in the basement pantry.

A roster of 500 to 600 monthly clients, including 160 to 180 families, comes to St. Kilian’s PSM for food and other services each month. Different teams of volunteers, 107 in total, come each day to the Parish Social Ministry building directly across Conklin Street from the impressive parish church.

The food pantry is open Monday to Thursday, from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., with later hours two Tuesdays each month. Msgr. Mark Rowan calls PSM outreach “the physical embodiment of living out the Gospel.”  

The pastor connects the preaching of God’s Word at Mass with the hands-on work of Parish Social Ministry. “Here we’re actually doing it, feeding the hungry, taking care of the sick, the blind, giving housing,” he says.

The pastor professes that the key to the ministry’s success “was hiring the right person.” The PSM director, Jeana Lewis, took over in August 2022, after first coming aboard in 2020. “She attracts people. They love coming here and they look forward to it all week,” the monsignor said of Jeana’s relationship with her many volunteers.

Lewis said, “I love it here. I love the volunteers. I love the Farmingdale community. I love the way all the volunteers love their community.” She’s also extremely appreciative of the support that she and her volunteers receive from Msgr. Rowan.

It’s not only food that parishioners and other community members receive from St. Kilian’s PSM. Direct services, covering a full page in their booklet, include assembling birthday bags for children and baking bereavement cakes for those who have lost a loved one, making friendly visits and calls to the homebound, providing transportation to medical appointments and the supermarket for seniors, and offering employment counseling and help with SNAP applications. These services are offered without charge, regardless of religion, race or ethnicity.

The service of volunteer case managers begins when people in need come to the window or call for help. They form the “frontline,” according to Lewis, ascertaining needs that often aren’t apparent at first.

Janet Gomez has been a caseworker for more than a dozen years, starting in the pantry and quickly moving upstairs when caseworkers would call her to help translate for Spanish-speaking clients. Her first responsibility is being a good listener, and she especially enjoys helping families with children. “I always try to give them support and see how we can help them.” The PSM work increased her awareness of how the Church serves the community and made her much more knowledgeable about St. Kilian’s Parish.

Another 12-year volunteer, Pat Defendini, took the opposite route. She initially was a caseworker before finding her permanent assignment in the food pantry. She likes helping to keep the pantry in good order, which is important when you are processing as many food orders as they do. She also keeps an eye out when a client “needs to talk to you for five minutes.”  Defendini says, “You know you are doing something good.”

St. Kilian’s Parish Social Ministry is one of 110 PSM operations at churches in the Diocese of Rockville Centre. All who reside in Farmingdale are welcome, and those from outside the village are given a bag of food and referred to their home parish, according to parish boundaries on a Google Map that Catholic Charities of Long Island provides. “It’s super easy to use,” Jeana Lewis says.

How Catholic Charities Helps

CCLI provides much more, including information and referrals for its addiction treatment and immigration services, and other programs. “They’re very hands-on,” she said of the PSM staff in Hicksville. “If they can’t give me an answer right away, they definitely get back to me the next day with answers where they’ve done their research or tapped into their resources.” 

Gena McSorley, the director of Parish Social Ministry at Catholic Charities of Long Island, said Parish Social Ministry offerings depend on the parish. While food pantries are present “at a lot, if not most” PSM parishes, some do not have many direct service clients. Partnering is common between parishes with greater and fewer resources. Most clients need more than a “one-time service,” she said, returning over a period of months and sometimes years.

 The other side of the PSM operation engages the community, which can mean involving parishioners and others in food drives, and making sure they are aware of how big the needs are and how the PSM office is responding.

Catholic Charities PSM offers a comprehensive menu of offerings to PSM coordinators, including monthly deanery meetings, winter and summer convenings, and the annual retreat at Cormaria in Sag Harbor and Epiphany Day of Prayer. There are Dialogue Days on Nutrition and Maternity Services, and Developmental Disability Services, Intake & Basic Skills Training, and Mental Health Awareness & Spirituality Presentation.

 In one case, St. Kilian’s PSM was able to help a client find desperately needed housing. Amarjeet Singh had reached out when he was living temporarily in substandard housing, telling Jeana Lewis, “I need help. I don’t have a place to go.”

Singh, who is blind, moved into CCLI’s Thea Bowman Residence in Amityville for people with disabilities in March 2025. He had been on the waiting list for several years before the placement. St. Kilian’s PSM put him up in a hotel before his apartment became available and gave him clothing, a sofa and chair, and a bed, with a lift, and bedding.

During a recent visit, Singh proudly showed his one-bedroom apartment and said the residence has given him a new lease on life. “The main thing is that I respect myself now…I feel proud and happy and safe.” Over the last couple of months, his case has transitioned to the Our Lady of Lourdes PSM in Massapequa Park, which brings him food the same way St. Kilian’s did.  

That same week Msgr. Rowan shared a conversation in which Lewis told him about a woman that had been living in her car who was able to move into an apartment with assistance from St. Kilian’s PSM.

 ‘She Sees Christ in Them’

“They are not numbers to her. They are real people,” he said. “She wants to help, and her heart aches for it…She sees good in them. She sees Christ in them.”

Having partners like Catholic Charities of Long Island, and Long Island Cares and Island Harvest, is essential, because the mission is too big for one organization by itself, Msgr. Rowan explained. The assistance St. Kilian’s PSM receives is extended by the rest of the parish and Farmingdale’s Mayor and Village Board, as well as local restaurants and businesses. “She’s integrated outreach beyond the parish,” her pastor said.