It’s early on a Saturday morning and Osvaldo Figueroa is awake, dressed and ready to go.

Known as “Papi,” he waits patiently for his daughter Millie Torres and his great-granddaughter Melia Shawver to finish getting ready. Then they climb into Millie’s car and drive to St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Parish in Lorain, where they join about two dozen other volunteers at the Mother Cabrini Food Pantry. The pantry provides produce and fresh, frozen and non-perishable foods to those in need on the second, third and fourth Saturday of each month.

It’s a labor of love for the 96-year-old Papi, a pantry regular for its nearly two-decade existence. Melia, 12, is a seventh grader at St. Peter School in Lorain. When she learned about Papi’s volunteer work at the pantry, “I wanted to come and help,” she said, so she started tagging along about five years ago.

“And then she recruited me,” Millie said, smiling. “Now it’s a family thing.”

Papi, a widower, cares for a disabled adult daughter, Maria. They live with Millie and, on Friday nights, Melia spends the night so she’s ready to get up early for a shift at the food pantry.

“I love doing this,” said Melia, crediting her great-grandfather’s example of giving back. “It makes me happy.”

“We see him do it, and it makes us want to help,” Millie added, echoing her granddaughter’s remarks. “We learned about helping the poor from my mom. The main things to her were her faith and helping others. She passed that to all of us, even down to my daughters and grandkids — Papi’s great-grandchildren. They’re all giving people. It’s been a blessing for all of us to give back to the community.”

Millie said the family’s faith roots were planted at Sacred Heart Chapel, a robust, primarily Hispanic parish just a few miles away in Lorain. Some of her relatives even helped build the current church.

Food pantry volunteers come from several parishes, including St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, Sacred Heart Chapel, St. Vincent de Paul in Elyria and more. “We’re  multicultural here,” Millie added.  

Papi, who speaks mostly Spanish, arrived in Lorain in 1952, along with other men from his native Puerto Rico. They worked for a year in the steel mills, at Ford, the shipyards or for the railroads and established a life here before sending for their families to join them, Millie explained. Papi worked 40 years for B&O Railroad, which eventually became Norfolk Southern Railway.

“He didn’t want to retire. He wanted to keep working,” Millie said.

After retiring, Papi started looking for things to do. He heard about the food pantry opportunity. He joined in, rolled up his sleeves and still works on food distribution Saturdays whenever possible.

Millie said the pantry provides a much-needed service for many families in the area who are struggling to make ends meet.

“Since COVID, this has been an important ministry for the community. Even though some go to other pantries, they come here and they tell us, ‘We’ll see you next week.’ So this is very important, especially with the economy … It helps people week to week,” she added.

Earlier this year, Mother Cabrini Food Pantry added onto a building that was on the parish grounds, creating a new distribution center to help expand its services.

“We are truly grateful to North Coast Design Build for overseeing the construction project and getting some contractors to donate labor,” said Michelle Richards, the pantry director. The pantry still uses a brick structure to store pallets of non-perishable items. On pantry Saturdays, the large distribution center is a beehive of activity as volunteers load boxes for distribution to the approximately 200 cars that start lining up about 7 a.m.

All the pantry volunteers keep an eye on Papi to ensure he’s cool and well hydrated in the summer and warm enough in the colder months. He has a special chair where he can sit as he adds frozen items to the boxes. One recent Saturday, he was adding frozen chicken, pork chops and sausage to the prepared boxes.

And the “regulars” recognize him, Millie said.

“They’ll ask, ‘Where’s the old man?’ And I tell them he’s inside the building, just honk your horn and say ‘Hi.’ Everybody knows him. He’s almost like an icon here: ‘Food Pantry Papi,’” she quipped.

Papi enjoys the camaraderie and finds the work fulfilling, he said. He also appreciated the extra attention he got on his birthday, when Michelle Richards, the pantry director, decorated his chair and brought a ribbon for him to wear. The volunteers sang “Happy Birthday” to him, also.

But helping others is what makes the work truly meaningful, Papi said.

“To do this work is the joy, the happiness, the sense of giving and to see the smiles on people’s faces is just a blessing in itself … And the thank yous we get. We’re here rain or shine, in the snow, summer, winter, all year-round. And the people are just amazing. It’s such a good feeling,” Millie added.

When asked how he felt about his food pantry work, Papi said, “Thankful, happy and content. Thank you to Jesus and the Virgin Mary, because God gave me 96 years and the ability to help and serve people here.”

Michelle said giving back is highly valued in the Hispanic community. “It shows our faith and what God taught us to do … You never know what another person is going through, so this gives us a special place in our hearts.”