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By Steve Mocarsky smocarsky@timesleader.com
Staff Writer
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WILKES-BARRE – As a line of hungry people stretched from the front of a downtown free kitchen to the back on Wednesday, the owners of a local business made the largest donation in the kitchen’s 29-year history.

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Tina and John Dowd, second and third from right, present $50,000 to Carl N. Frank, chairman of the board of St. Vincent de Paul Kitchen, on Wednesday. Others, from left, are Rose Marie Panzitta, board member; Anne Marie McCawley, project director; Monsignor Joseph P. Kelly, executive director, Catholic Social Services; and Ron Evans, executive director, Catholic Social Services.

STEVE MOCARSKY/THE TIMES LEADER

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HOW TO HELP

Checks made out to St. Vincent de Paul Kitchen may be mailed to Catholic Social Services, 33 E. Northampton St., Wilkes-Barre, PA 18701. Learn more about the kitchen and how to volunteer at www.cssdioceseofscranton.org. Click on the “Programs” link and scroll to the link for the kitchen.

John and Tina Dowd, owners of Sundance Vacations in Wilkes-Barre Township, presented a ceremonial check for $50,000 to St. Vincent de Paul Kitchen.

“This donation is absolutely unbelievable,” said Monsignor Joseph P. Kelly, executive director of Catholic Social Services for the Diocese of Scranton. “It comes at a time when we have really been struggling to get enough food to be able to provide these meals. This is just a real shot in the arm as we enter into the holiday season.”

John Dowd said Catholic Social Services puts forth a tremendous effort to feed 400 to 500 people a day at the kitchen.

“Tina and I looked for a place that would help … as many people as possible without a lot of overhead and other expenses. This is money that will go straight to people who need it the most, people who may not have meals otherwise,” Dowd said.

Tina Dowd said she and John hope the donation will make the kitchen “more visible” and encourage others to donate.

“We’ve been making smaller donations throughout the years and we saw an article in the paper that they needed funds in order to make sure that this endeavor stayed alive,” Tina Dowd said, adding that she and John allocate money from a charity budget to branch offices so managers can choose local charities to support.

“Charity is a core value at our company. So when we found out that St. Vincent de Paul Kitchen had a need … we wanted to come forward,” she said.

Kelly said the Lehighton couple’s donation was actually made in stock. “It’s a win-win for everybody,” he said, noting the Dowds won’t have to pay a capital gains tax on the stock because it’s being transferred to a non-profit.

The board will consult a broker to determine how to handle the stock. “If it’s stock that has a high return on it, we might be better off keeping the return and spending the return,” Kelly said.

Henrietta “Hank” Rose, 68, of Pittston, has been going to the kitchen for two years “every day except Saturdays and Sundays, when buses don’t run” and was “very happy” to hear of the donation.

She said she goes to the kitchen for meals because it helps her budget and “because I love this family. And the food is good.”