August 12, 2026

By Darcy Fargo
Editor

With support from the annual Mother’s Day Appeal, Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Ogdensburg has started a new program and continues to serve residents of the diocese in a number of ways.

“We were able to start a new program,” said Catholic Charities Executive Director Father Scott R. Seymour. “It’s a food insecurity grant program. We’ve given out 42 grants of $500.”

The grants support food pantries, Catholic or not, throughout the diocese.

“If the Catholic Church supports the pantry or sends people to it, it’s automatically qualifies,” Father Seymour said.

Joelle Lamica, administrative assistant for Catholic Charities, said the grants were used to purchase food items to aid the pantries, which are experiencing record levels of need.

“The pantries who received the grants were so pleased and thankful,” she said. “We’ve received a number of nice cards about it.”

Father Seymour noted that those who missed the annual Mother’s Day Appeal can still support Catholic Charities, and all funds received provide assistance around the diocese.

“Our appeal provides tangible assistance to people in a number of different areas,” he said. “We can’t always share the individual stories because of confidentiality and (health privacy regulations), but we work to help individuals in a number of ways, including case management; we help house people in emergency situations; we provide services to young parents; and we help connect people to other services.”

This year, because of delays to HEAP, which assists individuals in need of assistance to heat their homes, Catholic Charities helped fill the gap.

“We helped hundreds of people with one-time (heating fuel) fill-ups,” Lamica said. “To my knowledge, we were the only ones offering assistance locally. We helped a lot of seniors.”

Catholic Charities in Malone also hosted a Community Baby Shower with help from local culinary arts students, who provided cakes and treats.

“New (baby) items were collected from local businesses, and local service providers attended,” Father Seymour said.

“We had everyone we could think of who provides services to young parents,” added Lamica. “Young families came, and they were able to open presents and gifts and be celebrated.”

With rising costs and reductions in government programs, Catholic Charities is seeing more needs in the communities it serves.

“We received requests for assistance from Hamilton County this year,” Lamica noted. “Prior to that, we had one request from that county in nine years.”

Catholic Charities’ employees have extensive experience navigating services that are available across the region covered by the diocese.

All the agency’s locations also offer emergency food bags and baby supplies, informal counseling and donated clothing and household items.

Catholic Charities also continues to work with E-EMDT, a program to aid victims of elder abuse, as well as AmeriCorps seniors, which cooperates with Catholic Charities on the Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) in Essex and Franklin Counties, a program that connects older volunteers with meaningful volunteer activities.

The Foster Grandparent program also continues to serve the North Country and is coordinated through the Catholic Charities Tupper Lake office.

Father Seymour said Catholic Charities will continue to evaluate the needs of the North Country and evolve to meet them whenever possible.

“We see a lot of need,” he said. “While it doesn’t look like it did even just a few years ago, Catholic Charities continues to work to meet those needs as Christ called us to do. More than ever, we rely on the support of our North Country neighbors as we work to meet those needs.”