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By Catherine Green
Rita Ungaro-Schiavone has retired as executive director of Aid for Friends, which she founded in 1974.
Rita - everybody calls her that, from clients to drivers - didn't realize what she was getting into when she shared part of her own family dinner, cooked in her own kitchen, with some homebound people in her Frankford neighborhood.
From that neighborly beginning came Aid For Friends, now serving meals to more than 2,000 shut-ins in five counties from its own facility in Northeast Philadelphia and from other distribution points.
It didn't happen overnight, of course. From the Schiavone kitchen, with the enthusiastic help of husband Mike, a dentist (now retired), and other volunteers, the program of feeding the homebound moved to the Frankford YWCA; then to a mobile unit in the parking lot of the Schiavones' parish church, St. Jerome's; and then to the Holme Circle shopping center. Faced with having to move from there, Aid For Friends bought a 32,000-square-foot property at 1227 Townsend Road in November of 2000.
Initially, all this was accomplished through cooperative efforts of churches and other organizations in the Holmesburg-Frankford area, and hundreds of volunteers. Rita and her husband used to speak at churches, describing the need for such outreach services.
Over the years, the Schiavones not only recruited volunteers through faith-based organizations, they raised their own.
"We were parents of the '60s, when a lot of people became activists," Rita explained. "Wanting to serve God by serving the community," they did volunteer work in Appalachia, for welfare rights, and for interfaith and interracial cooperation.
They would take their four sons on their missions, and later the boys joined in visiting the shut-ins. As they grew older, they shared their areas of expertise with the program. Mike, an obstetrician-gynecologist training to be an Air National Guard flight surgeon, gave advice on health questions. Joe, a Philadelphia police sergeant who used to work for an auto dealer, keeps an eye on security and advises on vehicle acquisitions. Vince, an entrepreneur, shares his business experience. Steve, a lawyer, has been chief financial officer, and is his mother's successor as CEO and executive director.
The service ethic has extended to the next generation. All six of Rita's grandchildren have been active with Aid for Friends. Her oldest grandson, Michael, earned his Eagle Scout badge by raising funds and recruiting members of his troop and their families to prepare meals for 500 families in the Aid for Friends kitchen.
The kitchen is used by many organizations to prepare and freeze meals for distribution. Others are prepared at churches, synagogues and other facilities and distributed from other sites.
Aid for Friends works with religious, charitable and civic organizations, and relies heavily on volunteers, as cooks, visitors, drivers and donors. (For more information, www.aidforfriends.org.)
Rita remains on the organization's board, which will honor its founder at a reception on Sunday, April 22, aboard the Moshulu at Penn's Landing (For more information, 215-464-2224).
"Aid For Friends is a dream that continues," said Rita.
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