Every week, St. Charles Parish resident Noel Rosales goes to the Gayle and Tom Benson Cancer Center in New Orleans for cancer treatment. Every week, Rosales also goes to Matthew 25:35 food pantry in Destrehan to volunteer.
“The food bank means a lot to me,” Rosales said. “The people there mean a lot to me. As long as I can do some part to help others, I’m going to keep working there, volunteering there.”
Rosales began volunteering in 2023, a year after doctors found cancer in her kidney. The cancer is incurable, and Rosales will likely receive cancer treatment for the rest of her life. Rosales said she has a lot of faith.
“I pray every day to be healed,” Rosales said. “But I don’t want to keep asking God: help me, help me, help me. I want to be able to help others too.”
She said it’s a blessing to be able to help.
“You don’t know what’s going on with someone’s life, you know?” she said. “But something changed in their life that made them have to come in and ask for help when they never needed help before.”
When Rosales retired from her office manager role in 2023, she decided to try volunteering at the food pantry. She always felt that no one should go hungry, and she wanted to give back to the community.
“Somebody told me, ‘Oh, that’s too hard [for you],” Rosales said. “So, I said, ‘hm, I’m going to go check it out for myself.’”
The food pantry had a place for her: paperwork.
“I can’t be out in the heat, and I can’t do strenuous things,” Rosales said. “But I can do paperwork and I’m very comfortable doing that.”
Rosales said her volunteer work gives her a purpose.
“I’m not sitting home feeling sorry for myself,” she said. “I’m able to get there and be involved and be with other people, and they pick up my spirits.”
Along with fellow volunteer Peggy Zeiss, Rosales registers new clients, confirms if clients qualify to receive certain benefits, files forms, and helps keep track of who comes in every month.
Zeiss and Rosales have something else in common: they’re both widows. Zeiss lost her husband to cancer two years ago. Rosales lost her husband to lung cancer nearly 21 years ago. They’ve both been caregivers to their husbands and breadwinners for their families, Zeiss said.
“We understand each other,” Zeiss said. “We support each other.”
Rosales said she has found a lot of support and friendship at the food pantry.
“I just expected to go there and volunteer and go home,” she said. “But it has been a lot more than that.”
Rosales said she hopes her cancer is cured or that it does not spread, and that she can continue to volunteer.
“I just want to enjoy all the blessings that I have and help others,” she said. “I don’t know if it will be a year or two years. I don’t want to take anything for granted.”
