Jim and his wife, Lynne, joined the outreach ministries at St. Paul Episcopal Church five years ago to give back to their community. A community garden flourished on an overgrown unused lot at. St. Paul’s and sparked a partnership with Brighton Center to assist planning and implementation. Two years into the partnership, Nina Prysock of Brighton Center approached Jim to spark an even larger partnership; delivering food to those who are unable to leave their homes. Jim and the team of volunteers at St. Paul’s never hesitated to say yes.
“Brighton Center’s vision parallels the goals and mission of St Paul’s Episcopal Church, which is to offer assistance to those living on the margin or those that are more vulnerable in our community. The goal is to go out of business. It would be great if there was no need for our services,” says Jim.
There was a need and St. Paul’s helped establish a solution. Three years later, individuals from across Campbell County still receive their monthly deliveries of food through this partnership.
“Brighton Center links us with the individual in need, assembles the food, and sends it over for us to deliver. The individual receives around 30lbs of food containing a variety of frozen meat, dry goods, and other commodities and we deliver the second Saturday of each month,” says Jim.
Fourteen individuals or families receive the deliveries every month due to the inability to make it to the grocery store safely. It takes about 12 volunteers, including Jim and Lynne, to make these deliveries happen and more volunteers are built in if needed.
“I sat down one day and logistically organized the deliveries to make it easier on the volunteers. After I had done so, a team of volunteers said ‘please don’t reassign our home delivery recipient, we have developed a relationship and now we are like family.’ At that moment I realized we are not only delivering food to these individuals, we are creating lasting relationships through this program,” says Jim.
“You see one major theme with Brighton Center and it is fostering independence, whether it be with the education program, the recovery program, the financial program, and beyond,” Lynne says. “The goal is to create a life where the individual never needs the services again and I think that is the most selfless thing an organization can do.”
Jim and Lynne continue to provide exceptional work for Brighton Center and St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. Brighton Center thanks you for all your hard work and efforts toward supporting our mission of creating opportunities for individuals and families to reach self-sufficiency.
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