MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Since distributing 20 tons of food among nine pantries in Monongalia County earlier this year, the Church in northern West Virginia has enjoyed newfound friendship with the community.
"It was a tremendous goodwill effort," said Bishop Richard W. Morrison of the Morgantown Ward about the project that helped bring temporal assistance to many people in need.The request for humanitarian assistance from the Church began more than a year and a half ago when Bishop Morrison could no longer handle the volume of phone calls he received from people in the community requesting help.
"There were daily requests for assistance," he said. "I couldn't organize assistance the way I felt I needed to."
Troubled by the number of requests, and considering the high unemployment level among certain sectors of the community, Bishop Morrison felt that a small-scale solution was insufficient and that a "general infusion of assistance" into the community was needed.
He discussed his concerns with Pres. Boyd Edwards of the Fairmont West Virginia Stake, and then David Williams, the regional welfare agent. Soon, with the support of the then-North America Northeast Area presidency and approval from the Church, 20 tons of goods were shipped to northern West Virginia from the Church's Humanitarian Service and distributed among the pantries in May.
The food came at a time when the pantries were nearly depleted of goods and became the means of feeding thousands of people. "For weeks after the distribution," Bishop Morrison said, "people would stop me while I was out walking, or stop the missionaries, to express their pleasure at the Church's generosity."
The state of West Virginia, with its rolling mountains and thick foliage, is a mix of diverse populations and stark contrasts, Bishop Morrison said. On the one hand, some people live quiet, secluded lives at the base of these mountains, just as their ancestors did for generations before them.
While, on the other hand, communities with robust economies exist no farther away than across the river.
The distribution of the 40,000 pounds of food was organized in cooperation with a local community council.
The goods were unloaded from a semi-trailer into an empty poultry building on the campus of West Virginia University, and then divided and loaded onto a rental truck and distributed to the pantries.
"Your donation could not have come at a better time," Sharon Toothman, director of the Rock Forge Neighborhood Home, wrote to Bishop Morrison. "Our concern over the past three months is that close to 60 percent of requests each month . . . have never asked us for help before. That is a disturbing statistic to us."
Youth of the Morgantown Ward unloaded the boxes of food at each pantry, often forming a human chain that, in one case, stretched from the street, up four flights of stairs and into storage rooms.
"I could have burst my buttons," said Bishop Morrison, remembering how pleased he was with the enthusiastic service rendered by the nearly 30 youth of his ward.
The quality of the youth and their attitude toward helping others gained the admiration of pantry directors. At one of the larger pantries, where an average of nearly 500 people are served monthly, the director was amazed to see young people who were "obviously having fun."
"It was easy to tell they wanted to be here," she said. "They introduced themselves, then jumped into the truck and started working."
The associations established by the youth in the Morgantown Ward has prompted Bishop Morrison to consider how efforts can be expanded in the future to include youth and members from other denominations in projects planned for next year.
"There is a definite feeling of goodwill and awareness of the Church raised by this humanitarian relief," said Bishop Morrison. "I'm tickled it's had the impact it has had. I'm really proud of our Church and grateful to the Brethren. This has been a high point of serving as bishop." -- Shaun D. Stahle