Sr. Genevieve was born Julia Ryskiewicz in Mosinee, Wisconsin on June 3, 1923; the second oldest of nine children. Fresh bread for the family needed to be baked daily and as Julia grew older her mother would give her a loaf of bread to take to their next-door neighbors who were going through some hard times. Sr. Genevieve feels that sharing the loaf of bread and seeing what joy it brought to the hungry family was the beginning of her desire to work on behalf of the poor.

“Sharing that loaf daily did something to my heart. That experience never got lost, and the desire to help the less fortunate grew stronger as the years went by. God must have been preparing me for these years,” recalled Sr. Genevieve.

Years later, Sr. Genevieve moved to Chicago where she worked for a few years and then sensed the calling to religious life. She made plans to join one Polish community of sisters in Chicago who took care of orphans, but God made other plans. The streetcar she took to the convent dropped her off with the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Felix of Cantalice in Chicago (more commonly called the Felician Sisters)– a different Polish community dedicated to the spiritual renewal of the world.

After completing her three years of formation for religious life, Sr. Genevieve went on to complete schooling in the culinary arts. She worked in Wisconsin, Rhode Island, Alabama, and Illinois. As the need became greater for dieticians in hospitals, Sr. Genevieve took dietary courses at St. Mary’s Hospital in Centralia, IL to prepare for her new position. She eventually became the chief dietician at hospitals in Centralia, IL and Corning, IA.

In 1953, Sr. Genevieve and approximately 125 of the Felician Sisters left the Chicago province to begin a new province in the Western United States based in Ponca City, OK. Sr. Genevieve continued her work as a dietician and got involved in the Food Program and the Government Lunch Program. She opened the convent doors to serve hot lunches to the public-school children from nearby Woodlands School for five years.

After twenty-three years in Oklahoma, she moved with the sisters to Rio Rancho, NM in 1976. Seeing the need in her new community, Sr. Genevieve began to travel around the area picking up day old bread from businesses and distributing it from the trunk of her car. The need continued to grow and in time the pantry expanded to a one car garage at the convent.

In 1993 St. Felix Pantry acquired the two buildings on Barbara Loop SE in Rio Rancho that still house our ministry to the people of New Mexico. Who would have believed that Sr. Genevieve’s small efforts to feed individuals from the trunk of her car would grow into the ministry St. Felix Pantry is today? We are honored and blessed to continue Sr. Genevieve’s mission of giving bread and other food to the hungry and poor and to restore their dignity and hope.