Carole opened the meeting at 7:06 pm by reading the prayer that was placed in each basket that we gave out for Easter. The minutes were read by Barbara Yannaco; accepted by Linda Hunt, and seconded by John Lucid. In attendance were: Chuck and Joanne Bunnell, John Lucid, Bucky Ryan, Nick Dono, Michele Berner, Kay Coyle, Betty Riggio, Carole and Bill Grafer, Linda Hunt, JoAnn DiSalvo, Jim Falanga, and Barbara Yannaco. Our HPNAP report for March 2007: we served 69 households which included 113 children, 129 adults, and 12 elderly. We also distributed 104 Easter baskets. On  the weekend of March 17-18 Blessed Kateri held a second collection with the proceeds going to the St. Vincent de Paul Society. We have a preliminary figure of $3000 from this collection but we will receive a more exact figure in the near future. The Blessed  Kateri office will be holding a food drive for us later this month. Kim Busche has been getting items for us from McMahon farms. Some of this food is in very large containers. We will talk with Kim and see if we can get smaller packages. Next week Kim will be bringing 20 pint size containers of ice cream. If you have a client please remember that this is available to give to them. Carole and Bill brought an Easter Lily to Debbie and Gene Simco of Hickory Pond Farms as a token of our appreciation for all of the eggs that they donate to us. Please remember to ask your clients to return their egg cartons as this eliminates quite an expense for Mr. and Mrs. Simco. The Altar Rosary Society has sent us a check  for $692. Five hundred dollars of this was their annual donation to our society for the Easter basket program  and the rest was the proceeds from the raffle held at their covered dish supper. The St. Denis- St. Columba PSA will be holding their annual card party on May 4th. We always receive a very generous donation from this affair. Some of the Easter baskets were quite large and a problem for the scouts to handle. We will make an effort to ask the people who donate the baskets to use smaller boxes even if it means that they must use a number of boxes.

Our next newsletter will be sent out at the beginning of June. Nick, Bucky, Joanne and Chuck went shopping on March 14th. They bought 2953 pounds of food and spent $2161.06. Betty and Kay were  at the closet to help put away the food. A special trip to the food bank  was made on March 21st to purchase hams for Easter. We spent $304.82. Shoprite has not been able to supply us with much bread lately. Kay spoke to the manager of Stewarts about helping us out with bread. He has agreed to do so. We received a donation of $100.00 from Hopewell Hose. The Ark and the Dove nursery school will be holding a food drive for us. Carole will be representing us at the Rotary luncheon on April 12th. She will be returning with a check for $1000.00. Carole is busy with all of the paper work that goes along with her job as president. She informs us that the average number of families that we assisted monthly for 2006 was 66. This was an increase of 26% over the previous year. The average number of individuals assisted was 237 an increase of 29%. From this time forward we will be requiring photo ID of new clients. This will be done by the people who handle prospective new clients. It will not be necessary for us to ask our clients for ID. The St. Denis high school teens will be having their overnight fast. Joanne Bunnell will speak to them about people who live in this area and are hungry. The fact that we do not see them does not mean that they are not here. She will explain to them what the Saint Vincent de Paul society does. The teens bring food with them and Joanne lets them come in to see the closet and put the food away. Deacon Testa has asked Linda Hunt to speak to the members of RCIA about the St. Vincent de Paul Society and she has agreed to do so. The next meeting will be on May 9th. Carole ended the meeting with a prayer at 8:05 pm. Submitted by Barbara Yannaco