The Record Delta
Page 8A
Monday, November 25, 2019
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HOMETOWN HEROES Hometown Heroes – The Parish House By Alison Harrison Staff Writer BUCKHANNON — The Parish House has been chosen as November’s Hometown Hero by The Record Delta. The Parish House epitomizes philanthropic entities. If there is a need in the community, they will try to find a way to meet that need. The Parish House does good deeds all year long, but in the spirit of giving and the upcoming holidays, they go well beyond. The Parish House started to organize after the great flood of 1985. The Parish House was purchased in 1992 and officially opened the doors in 1993. The Catholic Church, along with Marvin and Sara Carr, were the main cooperative forces in creating this organization and enabled the opening of the doors to help those in need. One room of the house is currently filled with food items that will be stuffed in Thanksgiving baskets. Those baskets will be distributed to over 650 families in need. The baskets will consist of a turkey, stuffing, potatoes, green beans, gravy, cranberry salad and pie. The Parish House will do the same token at Christmas, but with the distribution of ham rather than turkey. The Parish House is only able to provide this gift of giving because of the thoughtful and generous donations of others in the community. There are so many volunteers who selflessly give their time and energy to help others, and that is what makes The Parish House sustainable. Director Kristi Wilkerson stated, “Every day is different. Some days are crazy and hectic, but that is okay, and you never know what to expect, but I absolutely love it here.” The Parish House also houses Crosslines, which assists those in need of help with utility payments. Crosslines does not provide assistance unless the person is in the termination stage with the utility department, about to be shut off or has just been shut off. There are policies in place so that the assistance is not abused. Examples of assistance are water, gas, electric, firewood, propane and pellets; basically, any source that heats a home, and of course water, which is also a vital necessity. The Parish House is currently serving 100 families a week. “So, on any given day 20 people or families. 25 people keeps us busy from 9 to 1, and Monday a week ago, we had 30 people in one day,” indicated Wilkerson. Wilkerson reported that there is a great need for assistance in the community with food and utilities. The word is out of what all The Parish House offers to those in need, so there has been an increase in traffic for those that need that extra support. When a family comes in and is in need of food assistance, The Parish House has a chart that they abide by based on the number of persons in the household. The pantry tries to provide three to four sources of protein and a mixture of vegetables and other items to make what they are handing out is as healthy as possible. Fresh produce is provided from Mountaineer Food Bank and Walmart is also a huge contributor
of produce. When they are about to take things off the shelves, they will donate it to the house. The community garden effort also provides fresh vegetables and fruits for The Parish House too. Food assistance also has certain rules, such as a family can come in every other month; friends cannot come every week or every month for assistance. Wilkerson exclaimed, “We have tremendous partners!” Palatine Foundation gave The Parish House a grant of $10,000, which will pay for the meats, turkeys at Thanksgiving and hams at Christmas. The Parish House will serve 600 families for Thanksgiving and then turn around and assist 600 families a few weeks later for Christmas. The Parish House only serves Upshur County residents. Partners in the community donate gifts of food and money, but there is a fear that The Parish House will run out of food for the holiday baskets. Wilkerson assures they will not run out of food, and will ensure everyone signed up gets their basket and the families are fed. When businesses, organizations and individuals make a monetary donation, they can memo where the money is to go, such as for use in the Thanksgiving give away or the food pantry. The Parish House can often purchase food from Mountaineer Food Bank cheaper than what items can be bought from a store, which really helps out when a monetary donation is made. Wilkerson confirmed, “We can stretch that further with using Mountaineer Food Bank when we are able to.” Mountaineer Food Bank also makes donations to The Parish House. There will be a list each month and it will provide free government commodities and the staff can check off items they think they will need or can use, and the Mountaineer Food Bank will provide those items in addition to what The Parish House purchases. The ultimate goal of local organizations like The Parish House is to put themselves out of business, so to speak; to help the community become selfsustaining through a group effort. The need in Upshur County continues to grow as evidenced by demand. There are currently food banks at both the middle and high schools, back pack programs that are serving over 350 children per week, The Parish House, The Salvation Army, and the Mountaineer Food Bank, which provides a free monthly distribution, as well as churches and other organizations that are also assisting those in need. Situations shift, circumstances change, but there is truly a problem right here in the rural community of Upshur County. Mountaineer Food Bank offers a hunger summit every year in August. Many topics are covered during the summit for organizations to take back to their communities in order to help their friends and clients. Moving and encouraging people to become more self-sufficient, budgeting classes, cooking classes, healthier living and much more are covered. Also included are ways to help people get away from their engrained ideas of living and trying new things,
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Melvin McKinley packing bags for friends in the Parish House food pantry.
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Parish House staff member Randol George stocking the shelves in the basement.
JP McKinley and Wendy Miller stacking boxes of stuffing for the Thanksgiving baskets. even new foods. Currently, a Service Scholar from West Virginia Wesleyan College is teaching some local cooking classes and trying to help create new ideas for cooking certain foods to help friends of The Parish House become more well-rounded, as a little change in culture never hurt anyone. What food banks distribute in their communities really makes a difference and the food distribution centers have to be conscience of ensuring what they are handing out is healthy for friends receiving the goods. The Clothes Closet, Crosslines and The Parish House are all closely connected, and all benefit the community. “If a neighbor has a need, we will try our best to help them, even if we have to refer them somewhere else for a service,” explained Wilkerson. The Parish House offers so much to help their friends. Recently, a friend came in distraught because her child had a birthday coming up and she would not be paid again before that time. The Parish House gave her a bag with cake mix, icing, plates and napkins to help with the burden. The Parish House also provided 611 backpacks to friends in the community before school started this past August.
The Clothes Closet also meets a big need for those in the community. Shoes, coats, bedding, curtains and clothes can all be found at The Parish House. Friends can again come every other month and with the voucher they receive, they can get four outfits per person in the home. The vouchers are issued at The Parish House and then can be used next door at The Clothes Closet. The closet is not exclusive to the vouchers; anyone from the community can come in and shop The Clothes Closet. The Clothes Closet helps to keep the organization running. They reportedly average $60,000 a year in sales that filters back through The Parish House programs and all the items are donated. To give an idea of how many utilize this valuable service, the Clothes Closet served 242 neighbors last month. Barry and Pam Moll, volunteers of The Parish House, stated, “The Parish House being chosen as the Hometown Hero is very deserving and Kristi has just done a beautiful job of taking over for Alicia and it has been very seamless. She is using her own imagination and gifts to take us some new places, as well.” The Moll’s explained how kids came in and got their backpacks
before school and got to pick out the supplies they wanted to take home with them. The Moll’s organized the backpack drive in August, which was a huge success and doubled from previous years in the number of children served. Barry Moll continued, “I will tell you one of the coolest things about volunteering here, is that as you come on board to do this, you’re initiated into being the caring place that this is. You don’t stay very long if you don’t care about folks, in addition to the neighbors that stay on and try to help and give back.” The Parish House also offers meals to the community three times per week and it is open to anyone who would like to attend. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday, the meals are offered at noon. There is no income guideline, and all are welcome to attend and fellowship. Approximately 30 neighbors attend the luncheons. Thanksgiving basket giveaways began on November 20 and the last day will be November 26. There will be an evening distribution one time during the weeklong giveaway. The Parish House has also been tossing around the idea of providing an evening meal one day a week for those who cannot
ALISON HARRISON/The Record Delta
attend during the day. The mission statement for The Parish House is “The Upshur Parish House and Crosslines, Inc. seeks to serve our neighbors with the compassion, generosity and grace of Jesus Christ. We provide emergency utility, food and housing assistance. Our free community hot meals offered three days a week are popular with our neighbors, and our Clothes Closet is the best-kept secret in Upshur County. We respond to other needs as they arise and seek to embrace all people with the joy and love of Christ. Everyone is welcomed here.” The organization certainly stays true to their mission. Wilkerson encourages everyone to follow The Parish House and The Clothes Closet on Facebook for continued updates and announcements and if you would like to be placed on the comprehensive notification list, please email or call in to let them know. The community of Upshur County is so grateful to have The Parish House and they truly are Heroes to us at The Record Delta. Thank you to all those who donate their time, money, items, generosity and energy to help friends in need. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone reading this story.