When the recent Los Angeles fires forced the local Capuchin Franciscan friars to evacuate, they sought shelter at the Pasadena Convention Center along with hundreds of others.
There, they noticed that people were hungry -- and decided to do something about it.
"It became very apparent that there was a need for food," Capuchin Franciscan Father Christopher Iwancio, who runs the friars' "Capuchin Family Kitchen" food truck, told OSV News. "I looked at one of our brothers … and said, 'Hey, do you think we can get the truck going for these folks?'"
That question sparked a major effort led by the friars that hundreds of people joined, whether through volunteering or donations. In mid-January, the friars began serving not only evacuees at the convention center but also first responders stationed at the nearby Rose Bowl stadium.
Later on, they worked with World Central Kitchen, a nonprofit that provides food to those impacted by natural disasters and humanitarian crises, to set up an official food site at the friars' residence at St. Francis High School in La Cañada Flintridge.
Normally, the food truck, which relies on donations, delivers a couple hundred meals on any given week to people who are homeless in Southern California. In the aftermath of the fires, in the span of a week and a half, it served around 4,000 meals. It also gave people something else: A message of hope and accompaniment.
"We can't bring back people's possessions and homes, we can't snap our fingers and just make everything reappear," Father Iwancio said. "But we can provide accompaniment (and let them know) that God is with them and they do not walk alone in their suffering, they do not walk alone in the challenges they face."
"You're not just feeding the body, you're also helping feed the soul," he added. "You're there to listen to people, to give comfort as they break down and cry."
While St. Francis, where six friars reside, was closed for a week, the school was not harmed, he said. The college preparatory school for boys founded by the Capuchin Franciscan friars is located by Eaton Canyon and Altadena, which were hit by the Eaton fire. The flames and smoke were visible from the school balcony; when the friars returned, they did a blessing from the balcony with the Eucharist in the monstrance.
Father Iwancio, who serves as coordinator of the Spirit and Life program and religious studies instructor at St. Francis, estimated that at least 75 students asked to volunteer with them in addition to at least 20 staff and faculty members. Alumni and other families also contributed, including by putting together snack bags that were handed out in addition to meals.
"We were proud of our students who volunteered their time and effort and grateful to the friars who ran the Capuchin Franciscan food truck," Tracy Traver, principal of St. Francis, told OSV News in an email. "During difficult times, we truly see the good in our community. Our prayers continue to be with all those families affected by the Eaton Fire."
Father Iwancio said the food truck recently resumed its normal operation of serving people who are homeless.
"But we've seen an uptick," he said. "There are a lot more homeless now because the housing crisis has now just been exacerbated further by these fires."
As for the friars, they're expanding their fire relief efforts.
"The food was just round one," Father Iwancio said. "Once people got settled into where they needed to and the fire containment got a little bit better, we started ferrying supplies to people who needed (them)."
Those supplies include PPE, or personal protection equipment, such as coveralls, booties, respirators and goggles "just so people can get back into homes." Now, he said, the friars are also beginning to hand out air purifiers.
Father Iwancio revealed that he has helped with relief efforts before, with Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, when he lived in Louisiana before becoming a friar. Drawing from that experience, he knows that "the rebuilding and the relief work is not just a couple of weeks, it's not just a couple months. It's going to be a couple years."
The priest called it a community effort to serve people impacted by the fires, and said that even the broader Franciscan network -- Franciscan schools and provinces and groups -- reached out to them and provided resources.
"In a country that's so divided and so polarized, when something like this happens, you can see people of different faiths, different walks of life, different political backgrounds, all working together to help people out," he commented.
"It just shows that we can care for each other … we can help bind up some of the wounds and the brokenness in our world," he added. "We just got to stop thinking of ourselves and start thinking of others."
