Austin Gontarski - CCS Donation

ARTICLE: http://brpressflip.com/wp-content/uploads/flipbooks/Catholic%20Weekly/2018/2018-02-16-eEdition/HTML/2/#zoom=z FROM THE CATHOLIC WEEK. By Robert Herbst. 

St. Patrick student takes great steps to feed the hungry

he ROBERTSDALE - Morning prayer at St. Patrick Catholic School includes intentions to “show respect, show kindness, be thoughtful and be generous and share what we have and be Christ to everybody we meet,” according to principal Sr. Margaret Harte, P.B.V.M.

    Sixth-grader Austin Gontarski has certainly taken that prayer to heart. 

    Austin decided he wanted to help children who go hungry in the area, so (he) used his own money and went door-to-door asking for food donations to assist Catholic Social Services of Baldwin/Escambia County.

    “I just decided that if I was a kid that didn’t have any food and if I was hungry, I’d want somebody to help me,” Austin said.

    And help he did. Austin used his own Christmas money, raised $450 to purchase food and also went door to door asking for donations.

    The final tally?

    A total of 1,726 meals/snacks for the CCS Backpack Food Program, which feeds children, and 280 additional food units.

    “Catholic Social Services was overwhelmed by the donations we received from Austin,” said Phyllis Beam, CSS Robertsdale director. “He came to our office wondering how he could help us and I explained about the Backpack program since he was a student. …It was one of the largest donations from an individual I have seen in the 14 years I have worked here. Austin is a truly special young man with a great heart.”

    Items included applesauce, cookies, Raman noodles, vegetables, ravioli and spaghetti. The food had to be loaded in the back of a truck and the trunk of a car before it was delivered to CSS following a school Mass last month. Austin also needed the assistance of two friends to deliver the items.

    “I was totally shocked,” Sr. Harte said. “I thought there’d be some cartons of groceries, but I didn’t think it was going to come in a truck and a car.”

    “There was shock all around.”

    Austin’s generosity also rubbed off on others. 

    When he was at the grocery store buying food, a stranger behind him in the checkout line was naturally wondering why a sixth-grader was buying more that $200 worth of groceries. 

    “He asked me if all this food was for myself and I told him I was doing a project where we give food to kids who don’t have it.

    “He congratulated me for doing that and gave me $20. So we went back and bought (more meals).”