Somebody has a name and in this case it happens to be Bishop Tim Mihalski. Many of us see needs but we push it out of our minds saying to ourselves, “somebody will take care of that.” Bishop Mihalski of the San Antonio 1st Ward, in the East Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, became that somebody.
the City that inspired Bishop Mihalski and others to step in and help.
Bishop Mihalski attended the City’s first Faith Based Initiative (FB-I) meeting in January of 2018. Reverend Anne Helmke, the City’s liaison to the faith community began the FB-I with the hope that she could bring together congregations and organizations to better leverage resources. According to Helmke, the initiative’s central goal is to “build resiliency among the city’s most vulnerable.”
Bishop Mihalski said, “At that first meeting they gave out a map of the city that showed hunger hot-spots. The places where they had data that showed families and people that needed assistance with food. Our Church building, at Galway was in the center of one of those hotspots.”
“I started to look at what we could do have some kind of food pantry.” Mihalski said. He initially went to the San Antonio Food Bank and participated in their orientation but that route presented some challenges. He said, “…about six months into these [FB-I] meetings we met up with Catholic Charities and they showed us their food pantry truck…. they were looking for places to serve and we had the location to do it.” For the past six or seven months they have held a mobile food pantry on the second Saturday of every month at the Galway Meetinghouse.
This evening, the work done by Bishop Mihalski and other congregations in the area was recognized by the Mayor and San Antonio’s City Council. Mayor Ron Nirenberg gave out the “Compassionate San Antonian” award to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints through Bishop Mihalski’s work. Helmke nominated Mihalski and several other congregations from District 3 and one from District 2 for this award.
Mayor Nirenberg read the award to the packed City Council Chamber: “for demonstrating excellence in citizenship and exemplifying our mission of fostering community.”
The Faith Based Initiative’s tag line is “In the City for Good” It is exactly what Bishop Mihalski and other wonderful churches and organizations have been doing! Thank you for all of your good works.