St. James Delivers 450 Boxes of Food to Chicago Families

Much has changed in Arlington Heights since 1987. One constant, however, is the Mercy Box tradition at St. James Catholic Church. During each Christmas season, parish families take a box from the church and fill it with food items for needy families.

This year, more than 450 boxes of food were collected and distributed to St. Malachy, St. Agatha, and Assumption BVM (Kolbe House) parishes on Chicago's west side. These churches then distributed the boxes to needy families within their parishes.

"We had lots of parishioners, young and old, help collect and load the boxes on a truck," said Liz Czajkowski, a parishioner in charge of the Mercy Boxes this year. The following day, a frigid December 19th, a group of college teens and their dads helped distribute the boxes to the destination parishes.

"The beauty of this annual charity is that families get to work together to help less fortunate families," said Czajkowski. The college teens delivering the boxes also learned firsthand about the challenges people their age face on Chicago's west side.

For more information about the Mercy Box charity at St. James, please contact Liz Czajkowski at lczajkowski@stjamesah.org, the St. James Parish at 224-345-7200 or email parishoffice@stjamesah.org.