During a recent visit to a Team Up event in Omaha, Nebraska, Catholic Charities of Omaha’s Executive Director, Denise Bartels said, “We don’t serve people because they’re Catholic, we serve them because we are.”
I believe this is pluralism at its very best: Denise roots her community engagement in her deeply held religious beliefs. She expresses this sentiment during an interfaith dialogue — she is replying to a question from the local Imam, Ibrahim Muhammed Ashour, who wondered if Catholic Charities exclusively serves Catholic clients.
Combining bridgebuilding with service
I was in Omaha to attend the event where I met Denise and Imam Ashour as part of the Team Up Project, a national partnership between Catholic Charities USA, Habitat for Humanity, Interfaith America, and YMCA. These marquee service organizations work together to embed bridgebuilding in their service work. Catholic Charities of Omaha serves their community through many programs, including several addressing food insecurity. Their Market Food Pantry is a choice pantry designed to look like a grocery store. In this way, Catholic Charities attempts to remove the stigma of needing assistance and empowers human dignity. The food pantry serves diverse clients in Omaha. To understand and honor the dietary needs and cultural norms of the people they serve, Catholic Charities enters relationships with religious leaders and individuals of other faith traditions.
“Bridgebuilding” is sometimes discussed as a separate, nice-to-have element that is tangential to the delivery work. In Omaha, we witnessed the ways that bridgebuilding is essential to the work itself, and the ways that bridgebuilding strengthens the core work of the Team Up partners.
A unique interfaith partnership
The Team Up Project at Catholic Charities of Omaha’s work is supported by The Tri-Faith Initiative, a single compound that houses a Christian church, a mosque, and a synagogue. These three institutions share a single property while each providing their specific services to the community. They come together for dialogue and to conduct service work together.
In between their houses of worship stands a beautiful walking trail and a community garden. Volunteers from all three religious traditions work to grow the food and send it to a local nonprofit that provides fresh fruit and vegetables to people in need.
Over the course of my time in Omaha, I was able to connect with leaders from all three houses of worship. Each expressed appreciation and admiration for their counterparts in other faith traditions, while also making clear that the work is not always easy. The attack on October 7, 2023, and the subsequent war in Gaza made working across difference challenging in some communities. Still, the leaders hold a monthly phone call to check in, and they are firmly dedicated to the mission of Tri-Faith and to the broader Omaha community.
The work Denise is leading at The Market Food Pantry provides a unique opportunity for this community during such a challenging and divisive time. Where many community members may struggle to come together, centering a shared commitment and service work towards addressing food insecurity in their community was something that the whole Tri-Faith community could get behind.
Breaking bread
On our second evening, Catholic Charities opened The Market Food Pantry to leaders from all three Tri-Faith partners and additional religious leaders from The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints.
This event, From Bread to Bridges, featured delicious halal, kosher Afghani food and meaningful conversation. We talked about the meaning of food in our lives — not just as nourishment, but as a part of who we are. Individuals reflected on family meals that would extend late into the evening, holiday rituals that centered on sharing food with others, and how food represented the comfort and love of their childhood. Brian Fahey, the chairman of the Tri-Faith Initiative’s board, talked about his interfaith marriage and how he, a Catholic, learned how to make matzo soup for his Jewish daughters when they are sick.
We also discussed the issue of food insecurity in Omaha. Multiple people cautioned against profiling what hunger looks like, noting that people of all walks of life can face difficult times and need a hand. Some leaders talked about the specific needs of the food pantries in town, and their desire for better coordination across organizations to deliver the best services that meet the needs where they are. Above all, each leader discussed the scriptures and doctrines that cause them to care for people in need, not as a ‘nice to do’ but as “a commandment.”
What I learned about bridgebuilding
It was exciting to spend two days seeing the “Respect, Relate, Cooperate” framework in so many different contexts. We were able to witness the ways that bridgebuilding does not just strengthen relationships, it strengthens the quality of work that we do for the common good. By reaching out to people who think or worship differently from us, we learn something that benefits us all.
In Omaha, we were able to see the best of America as people came together to learn, serve, and strategize for a brighter future.
Chris Crawford is the Senior Director of Civic Strategies at Interfaith America and an avid fan of potluck dinners.
