PARKERSBURG, W.Va. (WTAP) – With the end of the winter in site, food pantries in Parkersburg have continued to provide their services to the homeless and people who need extra assistance.
Ricky Ray, the director of the Parkersburg Urban Ministries near Market Street, said the pantry has been pretty busy during winter.
“This winter was pretty rough,” Ray said. “We had a lot of folks coming in because it was cold. Their houses were cold, and they needed utility assistance and gas assistance. This along with food assistance.
According to Ray, the food pantry has helped a total of over 3,000 people with food and other needs.
“People don’t realize, but we’ve got a lot of homeless folks,” Ray added. Not only do we have a lot of homeless folks, we’ve got people who are facing bad times. People have lost their jobs and got laid off. They still need groceries and they can’t afford it. They need help from us.”
Linda Crocker, the parish ministry coordinator at Good Shepherd Episcopal Church, said they have had support from outside sources and the church themselves.
“We have just a little bit of money the church gives us,” Crocker said. “Although the church is providing us with all the space to do all this work. We have donations from people in the congregation. We have donations from people that just live in the community that are concerned. Sometimes they give us money specifically for the homeless population. Other times we get donations that are generally just for our food ministry.”
Crocker said overall the food pantry assists around 125 to 175 people a week with their service.
During the winter, the church did see a slight decrease of people due the cold, but the numbers have recently climbed back up.
“Our numbers have been fairly consistent,” Crocker added. “They were perhaps slightly lower for a week or two in January just because of the cold. Thankfully, some other agencies opened shelters because it was so cold. Now that the weather’s a little bit better, the numbers of people coming are just going up.”
The Parkersburg Urban Ministries opens every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at their location at 219 11th St. from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.
The Good Shepherd Episcopal Church is open from Monday to Thursday for assistance from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
See an error in our reporting? Send us an email by clicking here!
Copyright 2025 WTAP. All rights reserved.
发表回复