MANKATO — There’s no question Mankato-area low-income families have benefited from the presence of the ECHO Food Shelf for decades.

But the community probably doesn’t realize just how much the food shelf has benefited from the presence of the School Sisters of Notre Dame since its humble beginnings.

For years, retired sisters from the Good Counsel convent have donated their time, funds and food to the service.

In fact, the food shelf may not even exist without the efforts of the sisters.

Back in the 1970s, sisters Grace Schutte and Dorothy Klaers began an outreach ministry after they retired from teaching. They visited nursing homes and sick people in their homes to pray and deliver communion.

“They started giving to meet the needs of the poor,” said Sister Mary Roman, a friend of the late sisters.

Schutte and Klaers were close friends and one-of-a-kind characters, Roman said.

The duo known as pilot and co-pilot — Schutte would navigate and Klaers would drive — were notorious for their erratic snail-pace driving. (Schutte eventually lost her driving privileges, but as fate would have it, she won a car during a Mankato Area Catholic School raffle.)

As pilot and co-pilot were busy ministering to the spirit, they noticed many Mankato residents were in equal need of physical nourishment.

So they began distributing items to the needy during their trips.

That service blossomed into a food shelf outreach program known as the ECHO Food Shelf and officially opened a headquarters in 1983 at the Lincoln Community Center, according to Free Press archives.

The food shelf continued to evolve and was taken over by other parties, but the School Sisters of Notre Dame involvement was far from over.

Things were going well until 1989, when ECHO lost its home at the Lincoln Community Center.

As a member on the board of directors in the ’80s and ’90s, Sister Jane Thibault’s main duty was lining up volunteers — many of them fellow sisters — to pack and organize meals.

But she also helped brainstorm a solution to ECHO’s housing dilemma.

“We were left high and dry,” Thibault said. “So we thought we’d appeal to the people and put an article in the paper that we didn’t have a place to distribute.”

A Mankato Free Press article resulted in donations that helped ECHO purchase its current headquarters on Second Street in downtown Mankato.

And, not so surprisingly, sisters continue to volunteer today.

The regulars are Roman, Sister Dominic Klaseus and Sister Rose Anthony Krebs. The three volunteer every Thursday afternoon.

“It’s the way we can serve the poor,” Krebs said.

The three are aware of the convent’s deep roots with ECHO, but they do not take much credit for its success.

When asked about the sisters’ impact on the shelf, Klaseus instead shifted the emphasis to area residents.

“It says something about the Mankato people who jumped on the band wagon and continued it,” she said.

As if time wasn’t enough, the School Sisters of Notre Dame contribute fresh organic veggies from their garden on Good Counsel, too.

More than 20 volunteers help tend to a portion of the garden, which is specifically allotted and grown for donations to ECHO.

Last year, the sisters gave 800 pounds of produce.

“The poorest people don’t always get the best food,” said Lisa Coons, director of the convent’s Center for Earth Spirituality and Rural Ministry. “Investing in the people is a great way to invest in the future.”

As long as the School Sisters of Notre Dame are able and willing, their services will always be welcome, said Ryan Ihrke, assistant manager of ECHO.

The sisters provide a jolt of positive energy to the food shelf.

“They go out of their way to get to know the people who come in,” he said. “It’s a good atmosphere. They know how to interact with people and it helps us.”