On October 3, 2020, Pope Francis went to Assisi for the fourth time during his pontificate. There he signed his new Encyclical Fratelli tutti, before the tomb of St Francis of Assisi, after celebrating Holy Mass. The Encyclical on fraternity and social friendship was inspired by St Francis, as was the Pope’s second Encyclical, Laudato si’, on the care of our common home, published five years ago.

Eddie Byrne’s family have been parishioners at Saint John Neumann since 1988, and Eddie became a Knight and joined the Family of Man Council in 1994. Our council wants to recognize Eddie and his family’s contributions to a very successful food drive that the council conducted for the Cornerstones food bank. Eddie initiated, planned and coordinated the operation, and his daughters, Kerianne and Irelynn, promoted it on social media platforms, which greatly increased the number of donations. The council collected and delivered more than 2,800 pounds of food and supplies to the food bank.

Many thanks to all the brothers who helped to make Saturday's Food Drive to
support the Cornerstones Food Bank a success. The Family of Man Council
collected an estimated 2800 pounds of food and toiletries. Cornerstones
estimated the value of the donation to be $4536. For context, we collected about twice the amount SJN normally receives when the van is here for the week. A special thanks goes out
to Eddie Byrne who arranged the many pickups from the SJN family.

In response to the continuing need for food in our community caused by COVID-19, our Family of Man Council of the Knights of Columbus will be conducting a special, supplemental food drive for Cornerstones on Saturday, August 8, 2020. To participate, please send an email to kofcfooddrive@kofc7566.us to advise of your willingness to donate and leave your non-perishable food and related family supply donation on the front porch of your house by 9:00 AM on Saturday, August 8th.

Keith George’s family became parishioners at Saint John Neumann in 2002, and Keith became a Knight and joined the Family of Man Council 7566 in 2006. Our Council wants to recognize the George family’s recent thoughtful and generous act of kindness that allowed our Brother Knights to share a wonderful meal for our June virtual social meeting, after months of forced separation due to COVID-19. They prepared a delicious meal of smoked ribs and sides, and ran curb side pick up in our parish parking lot for more than 40 of our Brother Knights and our Chaplain.