Written by Haley Parnell, LINK nky reporter
Even after 34 years of serving their community, the Isaiah House Ministries has never missed an outreach event to get groceries to people in need.
The ministry started its outreach by going door to door asking people if they needed groceries.
“Thirty-four years ago, we went knocking on some doors, we had 12 bags of groceries,” Ministry Leader Mark Kinman said. “We would knock on the worst doors we could find in Covington. At the time it had per capita the worst crime rate.”
They now give away an estimated 45 thousand pounds of food a month he said.
On the last Saturday of every month, you can find Isaiah House Ministries at one of two locations: Either 1500 James Simpson Jr. Way in Covington or 830 Elm Street in Ludlow.
The Ministry was at the Ludlow Vets center on Jan. 29 handing out groceries. The cold didn’t keep them from being there for the community.
“Three or four years ago, in the St. Elizabeth Hospital parking lot, I want to say it was February or late January,” Kinman said. “It was a level snow emergency like you’ll get a ticket if you’re out on the roads, blizzard, just horrible conditions. I remember a lot of our volunteers posting on Facebook. They’re like, ‘hey, it’s canceled for tomorrow,’ and I’m like, ‘wait a minute, I didn’t say it was canceled.’ We’re not going to be setting up our big, you know, setup like we do, but you guys know we never cancel. I said, ‘you know there’s people in need, and they’re going to show up.’ There were 147 people who showed up to get groceries.”
The winter months are not their busy months due to transportation issues when it snows. Kinman said during the summer they get a surplus of people coming through for groceries because kids are out of school and at home for an additional meal. They can see up to 650 families come through during those months.
The program doesn’t receive any government assistance it is purely donation-based. They receive offerings at their church on Sunday and people mail in checks to them.
\“We have a team of people that go and ask anybody if they have anything going on in their lives that need prayer,” Kinman said. “So, we’re concerned about the people and their lives, not just here’s some food.
“We ought to be out there loving our neighbors. And we treat everybody with respect I said imagine this is like a big party we’re throwing and everyone that shows up is a guest of honor and we’re so glad that they came.”
