KINGWOOD — Catholic Charities Raymond Wolfe Center provided food to 73 more families this November than last year, despite being open one less day a week.
Alix Evans, director of Catholic Charities Raymond Wolfe, said the 73 families were all served on the same day, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.
Last year for the month of November, the food pantry was open four days a week and served 210 families. This year, the food pantry has been open three days a week and served 283 families in November.
Evans said the pantry was able to serve the additional families due to more food donations from several agencies and groups, churches and individuals.
She said prior to Thanksgiving, the food pantry also received $18,000 in gift cards from the Archdiocese of Baltimore.
Evans said the gift cards allowed families to choose which meat they wanted to serve with their dinner.
Karen Huffman, who works with the archdiocese and its Baltimore Appalachia Work Camp, which donated the cards, said the group couldn’t come to the county to help with home repairs this year, so it decided to donate the gift cards instead.
The Raymond Wolfe pantry is Preston County’s only Wellness Works food pantry.
The Wellness Works program was developed by Catholic Charities. The program’s goals include providing food for low-income individuals and families with special needs.
Those might include food that is salt-free, sugar-free food for diabetics, special food for people with food allergies and food for those with dental problems.
Another donation Evans said she has received prior to Christmas for nine years comes from a group of high school friends.
“Rather than buy presents for each other, they get together every year and on the first of December they give us a donation of approximately $100,” Evans said.
This year she is going to buy cleaning supplies with it.
“People need cleaning supplies,” she said. “Some people don’t have the money to buy them and they can’t buy them with food stamps.”
In November, members of the Kingwood Rotary Club and the Kingwood Women’s Club partnered to provide buckets of cleaning supplies for low-income families.
Tarrell Ries, president of the Rotary Club of Kingwood, said this was a project request from the Raymond Wolfe Center.
“People ask us all of the time about cleaning supplies,” Evans said. “With COVID there is a big need for cleaning and disinfecting the house.”
Evans said thanks to the Rotary Club and the Kingwood Women’s Club, the Raymond Wolfe Center was able to give away 25 scrub buckets full of supplies like Clorox, dish soap, sponges, disinfectant wipes, Spic & Span spray cleaner, paper towels, window cleaner and Brillo pads.
The Raymond Wolfe Food Pantry is at 134 S. Price St., Kingwood. Call 304-329-3644 for information or to make a donation.
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