Kraushaar told how the former pantry director, Jennie Riesberg, came to tell her about the donation, during a dedication ceremony in honor of Riesberg’s life Wednesday.

The person had come in and said he used to be a client of the pantry, and he now wanted to give something back, Kraushaar said.

Riesberg came to Kraushaar with tears in her eyes, emotional over the donation in a frayed white envelope. Kraushaar was surprised to look inside and find only 37 cents.

Just like the woman in the Bible who was praised by Jesus for giving away the only two pennies she had, this person touched Riesberg’s heart with generosity, Kraushaar said.

-Messenger photo by Joe Sutter
Bob and Marian Riesberg look over the new art hanging at the Lord’s Cupboard food pantry, in honor of their daughter, Jennie Riesberg. Jennie Riesberg was director of the pantry for about a year before she became ill with cancer and passed away. The couple made a donation in her honor used to purchase a new refrigerator.

“I guarantee you it’s still in that desk,” Kraushaar said. “She wanted a constant reminder of, this is who we are. This is how grateful people are.”

Riesberg passed away in November 2018 after a brief battle with cancer.

Kraushaar is pastor of First United Methodist Church, where the pantry is located.

She spoke at an open house for pantry volunteers and the Riesberg family, dedicating a piece of art and some new equipment purchased in memory of Jennie Riesberg, after the family donated a memorial in her honor.

A new fridge/freezer was purchased to help the shelter store perishable items.

-Messenger photo by Joe Sutter
' A plaque was installed in the memory of Jennie Reisberg, who was director of the Lord’s Cupboard before her death.

The art features reclaimed wood from pallets, the image of a cross, and one of Riesberg’s favorite quotes from Mother Theresa: “If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.”

Kraushaar said that when Riesberg gave her all, she gave much more than 37 cents.

“Her heart of gold was given to each person that walked in these doors,” Kraushaar said. “Jennie not only made sure the families left here with food, she made sure they were loved.”

On the job and elsewhere, she always devoted herself to serving others, her family said.

“She had such a loving heart. She was there for everybody,” said her mother, Marian Riesberg. “Everybody came first.”

“She felt a strong calling to help others,” her sister, Connie Gruver ,said.

Riesberg didn’t have kids of her own, only nieces and nephews, Marian Riesberg said.

“She came real close to becoming a nun. She was discerning to be a nun,” she said. “She had been to the monastery.”

She had been going through discernment with the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, at La Crosse, Wisconsin, her father, Bob Riesberg said.

“Her mission in life was to help others,” he said. “She made the trips to the Appalachian area, New Orleans area, she just loved those trips.”

“Missionary trips,” Marian Riesberg said.

“She helped out at a homeless shelter a couple times for two week stints in New Orleans,” Gruver said. “She loved it. It was hard, but she loved it.”

“She always wanted to go back. I think she would have gone again in the summer,” Marian Riesberg said.

“She was going to go on the last trip a year ago, but she had this cough,” Bob Riesberg said. “And she decided to stay home because she didn’t want to be a burden on the people she was riding with. Ultimately we found out what that was all about.”

The cough turned out to be the beginning of something far more serious.

As Riesberg gave of herself to the Lord’s Cupboard, the volunteers there and the people of the Methodist Church equally welcomed her and her Catholic family in as family of their own.

“Jennie not only loved this church, she loved everybody in it,” Marian Riesberg said. “She loved all the volunteers. She made so many new friends.

“And she got flowers at home from some of them, after she couldn’t work any longer. They were so good to her.”

“This was tailor-made for her because the people at the First Methodist Church just opened their arms to her, and just welcomed her in,” Bob Riesberg said.

“Just like another family,” Marian Riesberg said.

“And subsequently they did the same thing for us, when we lost her,” Gruver said.

“That’s true. She had a beautiful benefit, everybody just came for her,” Marian Riesberg said.

Riesberg served for about a year with the pantry, and felt completely at home, Kraushaar said. Even as she learned of her diagnosis, she continued to believe in God’s purpose for her life.

“She told me, she had one year of 100 percent living exactly like God wanted her to,” Kraushaar said. “She felt like working here was her true calling, where God wanted her to be.”