FMM nuns provide free breakfast to poor every Sunday

When the second wave of the pandemic hit this city, a group of nuns at the St. Thomas Convent in San Thome organised breakfast packs to be given to the poor. Every day.

Though the pandemic is behind us, the nuns who belong to the FMM congregation ( Franciscan Missionaries of Mary) and manage St Raphael’s School and Rosary Matric School continue this community reach-out though on a smaller scale.

They offer breakfast packs to the poor every Sunday morning. One of the nuns from the group here which is involved in social service projects, distributes the food at the convent gate on Kutchery Road.

Says Sister Shobha, a social work post-grad student who moved here from the Andamans, “We have 100 packs to give. We have contracted a cook to prepare the breakfast every Sunday.”

The menu changes – idlis, pongal and a variety of rice.

Sr. Shobha says that they decided to continue this service because they found there were many poor people in this zone who could not afford a meal.

This wing of the nuns is involved in a few projects for the marginalised and those less supported. These include tailoring classes for women, office skills for transgenders, baking and nursing courses for women.

Lately, the nuns have arranged to take orders for school uniforms which can be stitched by the women who pass the tailoring course conducted in the convent-schools campus in San Thome.

Orders are being taken from students of the schools the FMM manage – Rosary Matric and Holy Angels to start with.