ORLANDO | After years of planning, Catholic Charities of Central Florida (CCCF) opened its long-awaited St. Joseph Agape Mission Market in east Orlando July 28, 2026. Located on the campus of St. Joseph Parish, Father Benjamin Lehnertz, pastor, blessed the building before grateful guests.
As one of the fastest growing regions in Central Florida, east Orange County continues to experience increased demand for community-based services supporting those facing financial hardship. Catholic Charities new partnership with the community of St. Joseph helps address food scarcity and expand access to nutritious food for families in the area.
Deacon Gary Tester, CCCF president, said the location is critical to serving the region. It is the only food pantry located between Catholic Charities headquarters near the intersection of State Roads 50 and 436 and the Blessed Sacrament Parish pantry in Cocoa Beach.
“This gives us a position in east Orange County that allows us to serve the Bithlo area where we’ve done food drops, Christmas, as well as the University of Central Florida students and also folks who live down in this area of Colonial and Alafaya,” he said.
The location will also serve as a key site for emergency operations, allowing CCCF to provide supplies following hurricanes and other disasters. Deacon Tester recalled how CCCF struggled to assist the region after flooding from Hurricane Ian in 2022.
Zeynep Portway is the executive director of Samaritan Resource Center, just a few miles down the road. Samaritan assists the homeless and struggling families in various ways including food distribution. The closure of various pantries after the COVID pandemic has put stress on resources. The number of people seeking food has doubled. “This is another resource where we can send families who are in need,” she said.
The market is open the first and third Tuesdays from 9 to 11 a.m., yet Juan Vega, Mission Market director, added the goal is “between the first 90 or 100 days to switch to weekly services.” After evaluating neighborhood needs, he said they may continue the already existing mobile food drops on a monthly basis. The parish’s last mobile drop fed 345 families with more than 30,000 pounds of food.
“We are the blessed ones in this position,” Vega said. “Our goal is to make sure every neighbor that comes here is able to experience God ‘one blessing box at a time’. It’s a place of hope.”
This pantry will form part of the Grocery Alliance, a partnership that enables CCCF to collect groceries from area stores. The St. Joseph pantry also will benefit from CCCF’s collaboration with Second Harvest Food Bank to meet needs of what Vega described as “the silent hungry,” referring to seniors who do not have the means to purchase enough food for the month.
Renovations to the building located on the St. Joseph campus were made possible through a generous grant from Dr. Phillip’s Charities.
Prior to the blessing and ribbon cutting, Father Lehnertz said, “Today we take an important step forward in our relationship with God, because it is absolutely essential to our understanding that, to love God means we must love our neighbors. And to love our neighbors helps us to love God. Worship leads us to service. Service leads us back to worship. We are so excited to share God’s blessings with our neighbors.”
Watch a video of the blessing of the pantry here.
By Glenda Meekins of the Florida Catholic staff, July 30, 2026