The Beaver Valley parishes of the Great Grouping are coming together in service and worship to help each other through challenging times.

On October 19, volunteers and staff at Good Samaritan Parish in Ambridge gave away about 12,000 pounds of free food and milk, as cars lined up for blocks.

“We have the entire town completely gridlocked because there’s that many people who need food,” said Cindy Deschaine, director of outreach for the Beaver Valley parishes.

Following a free milk giveaway in late August also organized by the American Dairy Association North East, the parish again handed out gallons of whole milk along with dairy, produce and meat products.  Some of the food boxes were brought to Saints John & Paul Parish in Franklin Park for distribution.

Deschaine is also providing leadership in supporting the decision of their pastor, Father Jay Donahue, to bring together parishioners of Good Samaritan, Our Lady of Peace in Conway and St. John the Baptist in Baden for weekend worship.

For the next six months, Saturday and Sunday Masses will be celebrated in the gym of Quigley Catholic High School in Baden, which recently closed.

“Our Mass attendance has been so great that we were getting close to exceeding the maximum amount of people at each Mass,” Deschaine wrote in the parish bulletin.

In a video message posted on Facebook, Father Donahue said he wanted to provide a space large enough to parishioners to come together, encouraging them to visit the temporary site, which will hold 400 people socially distanced.

“I have seen the power of the Holy Spirit when we worship and work together,” he said, “in feeding over 1,000 people a week, opening up a Safe Haven for children whose classrooms are closed, and accompanying countless elderly who are home or hospital bound.”

The first weekend Masses in the Quigley gym will be held Saturday, October 24 at 4 p.m., and Sunday, October 25 at 8, 9:30 and 11:00 a.m.