Father Michael Lopez

Father Michael Lopez is a Catholic priest and the creator of Hungry Monks, a mobile food pantry based in Ridgewood that exponentially increased service during the coronavirus pandemic. (If you’d asked 8-year-old Mike what kind of priest he would want to be, his answer probably would have been simply “a good one.”) Michael has transformed his church basement into a shelter — using a monastery model — and is creating a roadmap for other faith-based institutions to follow suit.