Telling the Catholic Charities story of feeding Marylanders in need

Still serving more folks in need locally than anyone, it was crucial to include the work of Catholic Charities on “A Cup Of Soup Or Bowl” and Andy Wayne dropped by Koco’s Pub to update Nestor on his old pal Bill McCarthy and everything the folks are still doing from Our Daily Bread and beyond the beltway to feed and assist the needy throughout the region.

Andy Wayne from Catholic Charities discussed their extensive services and impact in Baltimore. They are the largest private provider of human services in Maryland, with 1,700 staff and 100 in Annapolis. Last year, they provided 530,000 meals and served over 600 people through workforce development programs. They also support adults with disabilities, immigrants, and low-income seniors. Upcoming events include a golf tournament and a dragon boat race. The Fugett Center in West Baltimore, opening soon, aims to break the intergenerational cycle of poverty with Head Start, workforce development, and community programs. Volunteer opportunities are available at cc-md.org.

• [ ] Maintain and update cc-md.org volunteer portal and handle incoming volunteer inquiries so the website shows current volunteer opportunities and contact details
• [ ] Send an invitation to Nestor for the Fugget Intergenerational Center ribbon cutting (planned for late spring, around May 21)

Catholic Charities’ Mission and Advocacy Day

• Nestor Aparicio introduces Andy Wayne from Catholic Charities and mentions previous interactions with Bill McCarthy.
• Andy Wayne expresses gratitude for the support and mentions the Catholic Charities scarf.
• Andy discusses the advocacy day in Annapolis, highlighting the presence of 100 staff and a speech from Jocelyn Pena Melnick.
• The conversation touches on the importance of supporting nonprofits and the role of religion in community service.

Catholic Charities’ Services and Daily Operations

• Andy Wayne explains the breadth of services provided by Catholic Charities, including emergency services, workforce development, and services for adults with disabilities.
• Nestor Aparicio and Andy discuss the impact of cold weather on their services, such as the need for toiletries during extreme conditions.
• Andy highlights the importance of workforce development, mentioning the training provided to over 600 people last year.
• The conversation covers the various programs and services offered by Catholic Charities, including health services, legal services, and senior communities.

Volunteer Opportunities and Community Involvement

• Andy emphasizes the need for volunteers and directs listeners to the Catholic Charities website for volunteer opportunities.
• Nestor and Andy discuss the importance of volunteering and the positive impact it has on both volunteers and the community.
• Andy mentions specific volunteer opportunities, such as serving meals at Daily Bread and volunteering at programs for children with emotional difficulties.
• The conversation highlights the role of volunteers in various Catholic Charities programs and the positive impact they have on the community.

Upcoming Events and Community Projects

• Andy Wayne talks about upcoming events, including a golf tournament and a dragon boat race at the Inner Harbor.
• Nestor and Andy discuss the importance of these events in raising awareness and funds for Catholic Charities.
• Andy introduces the Fugitive Center, a new community center in West Baltimore aimed at breaking the intergenerational cycle of poverty.
• The conversation covers the various programs and services that will be housed at the Fugitive Center, including Head Start, workforce development, and conflict resolution programs.

Final Thoughts and Call to Action

• Andy reiterates the importance of volunteering and donating to Catholic Charities.
• Nestor thanks Andy for the information and highlights the positive impact of Catholic Charities on the community.
• The conversation concludes with a reminder of the various ways listeners can get involved and support Catholic Charities.
• Nestor wraps up the segment, mentioning upcoming events and thanking listeners for their support.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Catholic Charities, human services, workforce development, emergency services, volunteer opportunities, daily bread, mental health, senior communities, immigration support, disability services, Head Start, community center, Baltimore, nonprofit support, advocacy day.

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SPEAKERS

Nestor Aparicio, Andy Wayne

Nestor Aparicio  00:00

Hello. Welcome home. We are W, N, S T am 1570 taci, Baltimore. We are Baltimore, positive, positively. Wrapping things up here Koco’s. But we saved the best for last. As always, gonna get some coconut shrimp and some cream of crab soup for it’s all over with all the brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery, I have candy cane cash giveaways. We had a lucky batch here. I’m running low. Roz I’m coming to see you. We’re gonna be pizza John’s on Thursday, and then it cost us on Friday in Timonium, and we’re here at Koco’s right now. And, man, I’ve been five hours doing this and going through this. I’ve had Catholic Charities on many times, and my friend Mr. Bill McCarthy always make sure he sends folks. We thought we had Dave coming by, and then Andy Wayne’s coming by, and he brought me scarf. So you’re all right with me coming by here, being a final guys, how are things Catholic Charities? What’s going on,

Andy Wayne  00:49

man, things are amazing at Catholic Charities. And thank you for having us, and thank you for just the general idea of supporting nonprofits and all these efforts here in Baltimore, in the area, things are really great at Catholic Charities.

Nestor Aparicio  01:01

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Everybody else is supporting nonprofits, right? Thank God

Andy Wayne  01:04

for that. So that’s right, that’s right. Somebody’s got to, right? Yeah, it’s things are really great. I brought you the scarf. We just had these made. We were in Annapolis. Our team about 100 Catholic Charities staff. We have 1700 staff across the state. We’re the largest private provider of human services in this state, you probably knew that, and we had our advocacy day in Annapolis last Thursday. And so we all showed up with our Catholic charity scarves, did some great lobbying, heard from the new speaker, Jocelyn Pena Melnick, and she gave a kind of a rousing speech to us. They had just really debated an immigration bill and an ice related bill on the on the House floor. And so she was in this in the zone when she came and spoke to us, and she really rallied the troops. So it was a really great day. So now you have a scarf, you

Nestor Aparicio  01:55

know, I see religion get usurped in all sorts of ways and used in all sorts of nefarious ways, in so many cases. And then I think of people who’ve really walked the walk and talked the talk, and yeah, I think I’ll throw bill in on this, because Bill’s one of my favorite people through all these years and tragedy with his daughter many years ago, and our station got involved in all of that. But when I think Catholic Charities and the root of what you’re trying to do and the mission of what you’re trying to do in and around our community and all sorts of communities, give it to me. Square. I mean, where are we right now? 2026 fundraising programs, you talk about being the largest in the state. What are you doing on a daily basis? And folks who are out there driving around, listen up, because they’re just doing, I could go, this could be an hour long segment if you really start to itemize here, but you’ve got it so much. He’s got it in writing. He’s got notes here, like a real comms guy, but goes through everything on a day by day basis, because many people have been involved. They see the name, they’ve donated. They know Bill, they know somebody, right? What do you all do?

Andy Wayne  02:59

Yeah, absolutely. So I started a Catholic Charities three years ago, when I started, I’ve been in Baltimore for a good long while. I’m not from here, but I always knew that Catholic Charities was,

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Nestor Aparicio  03:07

what’s your football team? That’s important. It’s the Ravens here. Now I

Andy Wayne  03:11

grew up with the Houston Oilers. I grew up in Houston Oiler

Nestor Aparicio  03:15

jacket here. How about that? Wear my oiler jacket because it was all chilly, right? Now, if I got an oiler fan, I’ll sing the song for they got football. Here we come. Houston, Allers, number one. All right, good. You’re an oiler fan, yep. Houston’s got the Okay, good. I’ll sing later. Houston has the Oilers, the greatest football team. All right, so we’re,

Andy Wayne  03:37

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I’m already like you if, okay, let’s go So, but, you know, the Oilers became the Titans, and I was in transition to leaving Houston at the time. And so anyway, so I got, that’s right, that’s right. It was very sad. That’s very sad. So anyway, got to Baltimore, became a fan, love, love my Ravens. And you know, heard your interview with Joe Flacco earlier that was fantastic. So great to hear that, but I got here, and so I’ve known of Catholic Charities. I knew our daily bread, I knew some of the amazing work, but wasn’t until I started three years ago that I really got a sense of the breadth and depth of the organization. So we do several different, categorically, types of things, but then the people who we serve in each of those categories, it’s so specific the services we provide, and we do so many different things for people. So, you know, I mentioned the emergency services, like our daily bread, where we help people, whether with we operate the largest shelter in the city, Weinberg housing and Resource Center.

Nestor Aparicio  04:39

These are difficult things last Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday, you can’t with the cities of snow and people are hungry, right?

Andy Wayne  04:45

And and we had to put out a call for toiletries, for travel size toiletries, because we had so many, so many such excess clients at at our shelter and all around everybody who we were serving. So you know, when it

Nestor Aparicio  04:57

gets that cold, people have to come in, oh, and they have to, they. Have to and you want them to come in, right?

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Andy Wayne  05:01

Yeah, and we want them to come in. It’s our job to serve them as best as we can. So we have, that’s a shelter. We also have a day shelter, my sister’s place, women’s center that’s close to the Basilica, Anita Pratt library. But so we have those kinds of emergency services for people’s emergency needs, housing, shelter, those kinds of things. We are dug in on workforce development. Just last year, we serve, we provided workforce development training to more than 600 people. So that’s everything from like CNA, GNA training, peer to peer counseling, training for substance abuse, whole wide range of things, and job placement, one job placement as well. We work on that pipeline. We make sure people get jobs. So, you know, some people might think like, oh, you know, you’re just, you’re just providing meals to people, or, like, getting them off the streets in that way. No, our job and our mission as Catholic Charities is to help people reach their God given potential by, as we say, cherishing the divine within everybody. What’s your track? We don’t want to just sustain the current situation that you’re in by giving you a meal. We want to help you take that next step and find a home or find a job, or all of the above. So we do that. But then there’s like kind of random things that you would never know that Catholic Charities does. So we serve adults with disabilities in our Gallagher services programs across the state. We have residential homes of it’ll be like seven or eight grown adults with disabilities, and we have staff who go in and serve them. We we have an we operate, operate Esper on the center, which is serves immigrants in Baltimore. We provide health services, and we provide legal services. That’s a bit much

Nestor Aparicio  06:44

more of a challenge with ice, right? I mean, at this point, I mean, this is a real threat in a place like Baltimore and all these cities we’ve seen in Minnesota, right?

Andy Wayne  06:52

We actually had a call with the Catholic Charities of Twin Cities just last week because we wanted to get a sense of, how are they dealing with all of this. How are they advising their staff? How are they supporting their staff? How are they supporting their community? And because activities are ramping up in Baltimore, we’re trying to remain vigilant and protect our community and protect those we serve. So it’s it’s intense. We also operate 24 senior communities all around the state. So we have over 1000 low income seniors who have apartments with us all across the state. And just recently, I was visiting one, and it was really neat, because we have so much it’s tough to like, you know, visit everything and hear from all the people that we serve. But this woman who I was meeting with in her apartment, she said this was the best apartment. It’s the best department she’s ever lived in in her entire life. And so to be able to provide that and aging with dignity and to provide that support at the end of someone’s life, you know, is really meaningful to us.

Nestor Aparicio  07:53

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Catholic Charities here, Andy, Andy Anyways, here, Catholic Charities has given me a scarf here, my thanks. And, you know, Bill’s exit and Dave’s entrance, and just going through transition, Bill was, was involved with everybody and everything in the city. And I think probably grew Catholic Charities, just if not in word of mouth or feet on street, just the fact that you don’t have to educate people as to what it is a lot of times, right? I mean, you are a prominent organization in the community, absolutely.

Andy Wayne  08:23

And, you know, I think sometimes people are thrown off by the Catholic and Catholic Charities. We serve everybody. It’s not it is has religious roots, you know, in the Archdiocese of Baltimore from 1700s but we serve anybody who walks through our doors, we have the second large after Shepard Pratt. We are the so we’re the second largest provider of outpatient mental health services in the state. So that’s primarily Medicaid, but that’s mental health support that is substance abuse disorders,

Nestor Aparicio  08:57

and that’s not outsourced, right? These are counselors that work for Catholic

Andy Wayne  09:01

Charities, right? Correct, clinics across the state, all the way out in Cumberland and out in Harford County, Anne Arundel County. So it’s a

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Nestor Aparicio  09:10

feed people in our daily bread. Nut, what’s that? Tell them about feeding people in our daily bread? Yeah, you said. You mentioned feeding people on a daily basis. Just the job of that. How many people you feeding every day

Andy Wayne  09:20

last year, we fed nearly 530,000 meals. People meals, provided 530,000 meals. So that’s at our daily bread, that’s at my brother’s keeper out in West Baltimore, that’s at my sister’s place, at a whole slew of places. And so, you know, you’ve, you’ve anybody listening? And you’ve been, you know, right there at President street outside of our daily bread, you know, on any given morning, you know that there’s going to be just a group of people gathered there, kind of wondering what the day is going to hold for them. So we make sure that they start their

Nestor Aparicio  09:54

volunteers are every day, right? Yep, absolutely. I’ve had a lot of friends have gone down and cooked food. Yeah. Delivered food. I mean, my friend Dan Rodricks, for as long as I can remember, has been involved in that kind of work. And I just want to encourage anybody out there that if you want to help, you want to pitch in a lot of organizations out there. Certainly. How can people do that? What’s the best way to do that?

Andy Wayne  10:14

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Yeah, we’re really stressing. Thank you for asking that. We’re really stressing our volunteer opportunities right now, especially in this time where it feels like, God, what can I do? The world is crazy. Let me do something, right?

Nestor Aparicio  10:25

And it’s something that makes me feel whole, exactly, not just something that’s for me, something for someone else, right? That makes me feel good, right, right? I mean, there’s nothing like giving to somebody else. I mean, there really isn’t giving

Andy Wayne  10:37

to somebody else, using your expertise, your skills, to help other people. There’s so many different ways at Catholic Charities activate. So first of all, you could go to cc dash md.org that is our website. CC dash, md.org and just click volunteer, and that takes you to a portal that shows you all of the opportunities at any given time by category. So you mentioned the most well known way to volunteer with Catholic Charities is serving a meal. So you make a casserole for our daily bread. It’s a cold winter day, you’re looking for something to do. Make a casserole for our daily bread. Help feed people, but you can also shut down and watch and eat it and enjoy Right exactly? Bring tears to your eyes. I mean, it’s so you could do that. You can volunteer at any of those places. You could volunteer at one of our programs for kids, whether that’s Head Start. We’re the largest operator of Head Start in Baltimore City, so you can volunteer in a classroom. We also have a residential and day program for children with emotional difficulties. It’s up in Timonium. There’s St Vincent’s Villa and there’s Villa Maria school. Those are two places that always love support, always love volunteers, you can become a mentor for one of these kids who isn’t able to be in a normal school setting.

Nestor Aparicio  11:47

Yeah, I worked with St Vincent’s through Ed block for many, many years. Yeah. And I just think there’s so many people lifting boats in this city, and that’s why I want to do a couple Super Bowl to have folks like you out to say, you know, people get down on Baltimore, or down on the country, or down on people thinking there aren’t people every single morning waking up with the right kind of accountant that’s doing the right kind of work and helping people. So we’ll get down into President street and see you sometime soon. Anything else? Let’s get an event, or, I want to say the ball, or your Super Bowl.

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Andy Wayne  12:22

So we have a golf tournament is coming up this summer, late, late spring. Really, we do dragon boats. That’s a huge event down at the Inner Harbor. We have corporations come out, and organizations come out, and they race about this No No, and it’s crazy. I didn’t either and still, until I started working Catholic Charities, but it’s a huge but it’s a huge event. And we have, you know, like 20 boats will be out there and racing, competing for the whole day. We do live commentary. You mentioned bill. That used to be one of Bill’s favorite things to do is just out doing his sports casting, live commentary, like my show so much. Well, he’s a huge sports fan.

Nestor Aparicio  13:00

So it’s my gig. Bill, you’re retired. Come do my gig. Sit in next week. I’ll take the week off.

Andy Wayne  13:05

We have a pickleball tournament this weekend, but I’m not sure if anybody if I ain’t doing a pickleball, that’s all right, that’s all right. I’ll suffer for you.

Nestor Aparicio  13:14

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I’m GBMC sponsored. I’ve already had a colonoscopy. Got a checkup coming out. I don’t need to go anymore hospital. I had a root canal last week, so I don’t No no pickleball. To me, sounds like an injury waiting to happen for a man of my incredible physical ability at this point in my life,

Andy Wayne  13:29

that’s that’s good to be prepared for that kind of reality. But, you know, really, really, I mean, the main way I’m retired, the main way people can participate, as you say, is volunteering, of course, obviously giving. But for those who want to do more, and as you say, feel like they’re having an impact, volunteering, coming out to our programs, helping out. There’s, there’s always something going on at one of our programs.

Nestor Aparicio  13:53

Anything I see safe streets here, St Edward’s food pantry. So our success guy, I want to make sure I know Gene so the fugitive center. So let me, yeah, let me tell you about I haven’t had a pronounce. It’s not fuguet, right? You got it, that’s right. So this has been in my house. Hi Jean. I’m glad you asked about it. Hi Adam Jones and your wife. I’m sorry, local.

Andy Wayne  14:19

It’s Baltimore. Regal. F Lewis, you know, that’s even though

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Nestor Aparicio  14:23

we’re an oiler stuff from my Houston. I appreciate that you’re wearing oiler stuff because it’s chilly and the door keeps open. It’s 20 degrees outside. It’s, I mean, you know, I sing the Oilers fight song before

Andy Wayne  14:33

I’m done with you. Okay, I’ll join I’ll join you in two part two, part harmony. So, so the few get Carolyn, if you get center, it’s the engineer Intergenerational Center. We just named it this past fall after her, because of the how involved she’s in the community. This will be larger than our daily bread employment center. This will be, this is Catholic Charities largest project. Where is it going to be? So it’s going, it’s on Poplar Grove Avenue out in West Baltimore, okay, and it is, I. We’ve been in that community for a long time, and so this is one of these projects. This really shows how Catholic Charities operates. A lot of nonprofits. Well, some nonprofits will say this community needs X, and we’re going to just provide that to this community. But what we try to do is really listen to what needs are. And our goal in this community, where we’re building this and it’s going to open this spring, is to break the intergenerational cycle of poverty. And so this is our first Community Center, really, of Catholic Charities can be 55,000 square feet, and it will will be the largest Head Start location in the city,

Nestor Aparicio  15:39

head starts for kids, by the way. Yep, great. I talked to John Hoey from the Y a lot about start. So, yeah, absolutely, so.

Andy Wayne  15:46

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But it will also house peace players, which is a nonprofit that does work conflict resolution and communities around the world. And so that’ll be youth leadership and development opportunities. Requite, is a workforce development program that’s already based in the neighborhood. They do screen printing, they do catering, they do all these opportunities. But the main thing is, is when parents drop their kids off at their head start at the fugit center, they won’t just be dropping them off and leaving, but they will go upstairs and they can take workforce development classes. They can take enriching classes. They can meet there’s going meet. There’s going to be hoteling space for them to meet and

Nestor Aparicio  16:27

model for us in another city where it’s, you know, where you you’re, like you mentioned Minneapolis earlier, but just other places where they’ve put these kinds of centers in,

Andy Wayne  16:36

to some degree, not with this many partners, and not with so much collaboration that has really been shaped by the needs of the community. Opens this year, opening in April or May. Yes, soon, very soon. So we did the groundbreaking a year ago. Here soon we have a ribbon cutting. Yep. All right. Well, you invite me down right may 21

Nestor Aparicio  16:58

May, it’s right after the Preakness. That’s good. All right, hit me up. Yeah, I’m in Andy Ray’s here. He’s from Catholic Charities, and he has been sent over by Dave to tell us all these good things. We’re Koco’s Pub. It’s all brought to you by the Maryland lottery at the candy cane cash giveaways as well as GBMC. Let’s wrap it up for last pitch for you, anything that I left out here, or ways that people can get involved and get out online and learn about Catholic Church.

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Andy Wayne  17:22

Yeah, my last pitch, CC, dash, md.org, you’ll find, I know you’ll find everything you need, because I oversee our website. And so you can stone it. You can reach out and let me know that some complain to him, right? But that’s, that’s the way to plug in. That’s the way to find out who we are. It’s an amazing organization. You mentioned the people that come out every day to make a difference, and that reminder that we need that people are out there doing that. I mean, I get choked up when I just watch videos that I’ve made of our staff doing their job. So it’s a real commitment. It’s amazing stuff. A lot of people are involved in this movement to change lives, and hopefully your listeners will get more involved.

Nestor Aparicio  18:00

Let’s make Baltimore better man. Catholic Charities joining us as well as let’s see the whole list of people I’ve had that have had helping up mission come by. I’ve had the Dave and the guys from the mervo robotics team and the city robotics team. I had Dave Copenhaver send over a lovely Renee Barnes for workforce development. Right over at East Point mall, Natasha gwinns was here from her resiliency, talking about keeping ladies off the street and getting them healthy and getting them what they need. Racik was here talking about his wife’s Africa program as well. And I think, I think I covered it all that was that’s just today, pizza John’s on Thursday, and ASICs Friday. We’re going to be over Costas and Timonium, and I’m gonna break off things here, and everybody comes to Koco’s and they get the crab cake. And we kind of emptied out here right between lunch and dinner, about to get run over here. It’s been crazy all day, but we’re at the end of a cold day here. I’ll take a crab cake home, and Marcella knows I’m gonna cut that thing into four I’m gonna put it on some bays, English muffins. I’m gonna have me extra sharp cheddar cheese on top. I’m gonna take some of her coleslaw home. It has some crab melts. But when you come to Koco’s, get the coconut shrimp and never, ever, ever come here and not get the cream of crab soup. First thing I got, I got Renee a bowl to start today, and it started our day off the right way. So for Marcello and for everybody around here, my thanks to everybody and to all of our sponsors, including Catholic Charities, for being our last guest of the day. I am Nestor. We are W NST AM, 1570 taci, Baltimore, back for more of our fantastic Baltimore positive programming. We are W NST am 1570 and we never stop talking Baltimore positive you.