Delphos groups strive for ‘Community Unity’

Published:  Saturday, August 1, 2009 (7 months, 2 weeks ago)
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Suzanne Taylor, left, Melissa Odenweller and Jodye Grice look over a tentative calendar for Community Unity projects.By STACY TAFF
The Delphos Herald

DELPHOS — With the current recession, lay-offs and the inability to find work, it seems only natural that Delphos, “America’s friendliest city,” would make a decision to step up and reach a helping hand out to those in need.
The Rev. Dave Howell of Trinity United Methodist Church, along with JUMP (Joint United Methodist Project), held a “Community Unity” meeting Thursday to discuss a plan of action for starting an inter-faith, non-denominational outreach program.
“For the last 4-5 months we’ve been talking to food providers here in Delphos about the growing need due to the economic situation and we’ve decided it’s time to think about a community meal,” said Pastor Howell. “We’re thinking one night a week for about two hours we’ll serve a meal for anyone in the community who has a need. There are also other problems in the community, like bills and things, but there are some things that are just beyond the scope of what we can deal with.”
It may sound like an easy thing to organize a serving line and have people show up, but Suzanne Taylor of the Inter-Faith Thrift Shop and JUMP says this isn’t the case.
“The hardest part of this will be getting the people with the greatest need to come,” she said. “The people who need it the most won’t come if they have anything at all in their pantry. I mean who would? But what people don’t understand is if you come for the meal, then you can stretch the things in your pantry out a little more, make them last longer.”
“And we’ll need to get more organizations involved and I’d say it would be good for us to get about 8 different groups of people helping out who could take turns doing the meal; that way each group would only have to do it once every month and half,” Pastor Howell added. “We’ll also need to find places to hold the meal where there’s enough room and where there is a working kitchen to do the cooking. We have the kitchen here at Trinity and then the Annex and St. Peter would be options as well. As for where the money will come from to set this up, we do have some seed money here at Trinity. And any donations we accept, whether they be food, monetary or otherwise, will have to be cleared through Suzanne.”
As for when to hold “Supper’s On Us,” it was decided that Thursday nights would conveniently coincide with the Thrift Shop’s hours.
“We’re thinking 4:30-6:30 p.m. every Thursday starting Sept. 24. That way all of the summer stuff and the beginning of school will be out of the way and people will have more time to volunteer,”  Howell said. “That way, those who would still want to go to the Thrift Shop afterward will have more than enough time to eat their meal.”
On the question of plates and utensils, it was decided to wait until after the first meal to gauge how many would be eating.
“We don’t want to use a lot of Styrofoam and plastic for the sake of the environment, but then again we don’t know how many would be showing up,” Pastor Howell said. “If we had a lot of people and we used regular dishes and silverware, that would be a lot of washing dishes afterward for the volunteers.”
“Supply Sergeant” Pat Poling was designated the task of making sure there are enough plates and various other supplies for the meals.
Also discussed at the meeting was a school supplies donation program.
“I think there will be a pretty big need for school supplies this year and I mean if a family is having a hard time affording food, how are they going to be able to get their kids all of the supplies they need?” asked Melissa Odenweller of St. John’s. “What we’re probably going to do is place bins at businesses and places like ALCO, so that when people are out buying school supplies and they can afford to buy a couple of each thing, to just drop one of each of the supplies into the bin for someone who can’t.”
“Once we have all of the supplies collected, we’ll distribute them to anyone who needs them,” said Pastor Howell. “We’re thinking that we’ll set up here at Trinity for the distribution on Aug. 21, a week before school starts, to pass out supplies for the kids from Delphos City or St. John’s school districts who have need of them.”
In addition to all of this, the Community Unity group discussed the possibility of a community help-line.
“This is the thing I would really like to see happen,” Pastor Howell said. “One phone number that anyone in the community can call for help — monetary or otherwise — instead of having half a dozen numbers to call and not knowing which will be the most help. Hopefully we’ll get that up soon.”
Also at the meeting were Dennis Hickey, Jodye Grice, Stephenie Culp, Virginia Thatcher, Joyce Kiggins and Dan Grice.
The next Community Unity meeting was scheduled for 8 p.m. Aug. 18.

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