Catholic nonprofit becomes a safety net providing a wide variety of help for those in need.
EL SOBRANTE — Dozens of people stood in line on a recent crisp, fall morning for free food thatgives away outside St. Callistus Catholic Church. Many were immigrants who spoke little English, but that mattered not to volunteer Arlesa Miles, who immediately welcomed them with a warm smile, a hug or a fist bump, and set about filling their bags with exactly what they needed.
Miles, once hungry herself, has made it her mission to get to know the people who come to St. Vincent de Paul for help — including several living in tents atop the steep hill behind the church — on its twice-weekly food pantry giveaways.
St. Vincent de Paul volunteer Arlesa Miles, of San Pablo, sorts through food donations with volunteer Linda Lee, left, while outside of St. Callistus Catholic Church in El Sobrante, Calif., on Thursday, Oct. 27, 2022. St. Vincent’s thrift store helps fund many of the nonprofit’s functions, including job training and information sessions, free emergency food packages and a free lunch offered weekdays. The organization gives out 7,000 coats each year and offers a daytime shelter, with hot meals and showers, for homeless clients in the Winter Nights Shelter program.
Miles was a mechanic in the Army before being injured in a training accident that would require painful hip surgery and months in a body cast. Later divorced, she moved her children to the Bay Area and worked as a teaching assistant for two decades with the West Contra Costa School District. But when her daughter was 15, the teen got into a horrific car accident, the stress of which weighed heavily on Miles’ mental health.
Still, finding it difficult to deal with people and new situations, for weeks Miles would visit the church and simply sit outside on the bench in front of a Ten Commandments monument, in tears, unable to bring herself to join the line. Volunteers with St. Vincent de Paul would come out to her and try to make her feel comfortable.
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