MarySue Rosenthal Gee

For 28 years, MarySue dedicated her life to feeding the most vulnerable through Food Outreach in St. Louis—the only organization in the area whose mission is to provide nutritional support and enhance the quality of life of men, women and children living with HIV/AIDS or cancer and hunger. A former member of the Sisters of St. Joseph, MarySue’s years in the novitiate further instilled in her a mission of love and shaped her devotion to Food Outreach when she began working for the organization as a volunteer in 1991. “Those years in the novitiate were ... transformational in my development as a human being,” she says.“... I have always carried the CSJ charism with me–to serve the dear neighbor without distinction.”

Eight years later, she became the director of operations. Throughout her tenure, MarySue has helped Food Outreach increase its impact exponentially. The organization consolidated its frozen prepared meal and grocery program to one facility, providing a convenient one-stop service center. It launched Monday Hot Lunch that is open to clients and a guest to enjoy a three-course meal served restaurant-style. And it implemented a van delivery program, providing meals to sick clients. Food Outreach also expanded its reach by partnering with two Illinois AIDS service organizations to provide groceries and homemade frozen meals, and formed a strategic partnership with Schnucks Specialty Pharmacy, which has a pharmacist on-site every week to help clients maximize the effectiveness of their medications.

MarySue retired in 2019, but her passion and generosity continues to make a lasting impression on all those she has encountered.