Lois DeSantis made it her life's mission to make things better for residents of Richfield and neighboring communities who were in need. Mission accomplished.
For nearly 60 years, she worked to get her neighbors the help they needed through the League of Women Voters of Richfield, the Richfield Human Rights Commission and at Good Samaritan United Methodist Church in Edina. She was one of the founders of Volunteers Enlisted to Assist People (VEAP), an agency that has grown into the state's largest food bank. It also provides transportation, children and youth services, housing assistance and skills training.
"She did what she could do to make Richfield the best possible community," said her husband of 59 years, Camillo DeSantis. "She believed in the community and people living here, and wanted as nice a community as possible."
Lois DeSantis died Oct. 8 of natural causes at the N.C. Little Hospice in Edina. She was 96.
De Santis' road to social service started at her New Jersey elementary school, where she stood up for kids from an orphanage because she didn't like the way teachers picked on them, her husband said. That bent toward service continued through her time in the Girl Scouts and influenced her decision to major in psychology at Swarthmore College.
DeSantis began her career at a neighborhood center in Hartford, Conn. She later worked at the Detroit Community Health and Welfare Council and was personnel director for the National Federation of Settlements and Neighborhood Centers in New York City. Lois and Camillo married in 1956, moved to Richfield and immediately immersed themselves in the community.
As a volunteer for Meals on Wheels, DeSantis noticed that many of her elderly clients had much larger needs. She recruited others from local churches and started a small food pantry. Over the years, the organization that became VEAP added services and in 1973 hired its first paid executive director. VEAP now has 20 paid staff members, more than 1,700 volunteers and an annual budget of more than $7 million.
"She was the key in making it a professional social agency with an eye on the outcome for people," said Susan Russell Freeman, whom DeSantis hired as director; she held that post until she stepped down in April. "It was not about doing good because we were good people. She was about doing good because when it's done well it changes the lives of people. She did it from compassion, to serve people in a way so they could use their God-given gifts and find strength out of poverty."
