120 Christmas dinners served, 606 gifts for 303 children in 115 households
From Wellspring Ministries,
Wellspring Ministries is finishing 19 years of service to those who have household needs in Allegany County. We are open Wednesdays and Fridays from 10 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. for clients. We serve a hot meal at noon both days. Before each meal we share a devotional from God’s Word with those in attendance. The devotionals are shared by several area pastors and staff members.
Wellspring is a faith based, not-for-profit charity not specifically affiliated with any area church, although we have close ties to many churches. We are supported by voluntary financial donations from individuals, service organizations and churches, along with an occasional grant. We recently received a grant to install a pair of Generac generators to keep our building up and running during power outages, to keep our well pump, furnaces, and lights on. This will keep our pipes from freezing and the water running in an emergency.
Wellspring accepts household goods in good condition (clothing, décor, linens, toys, kitchen items, furniture and working appliances), sorts donated items and makes the items available to those who have needs. All is done at no cost to the client.
We have a staff of around 30 volunteers who do the daily work of sorting and displaying the items donated, as well as preparing and serving the meals. Although we are not a ‘food pantry,’ Wellspring can provide emergency food boxes when needed.
We just finished our Christmas celebrations at Wellspring. We have a Christmas Room that was stocked with new, unwrapped gifts for parents to select from (2 gifts per child) for Christmas celebrations at home. We were able to provide 606 gifts for 303 children in 115 households, along with a bunch of ‘stocking stuffers’ to parents who were very grateful for the help. The number of children served is an all-time high for Wellspring. We are grateful for the support of individuals and organizations who provided some of the funds necessary to purchase the gifts.
Our Christmas dinner was underwritten by a friend of Wellspring who provided the necessary funds to do a ham dinner. We served 120 Christmas dinners on December 20 – an all-time high for a single meal at Wellspring. Working with Tops Friendly Market in Wellsville, we were able to provide a small ham to each family present at the dinner to help them provide for their Christmas dinner at home. We were blessed to have the Allegany County Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution serve our meal.
If you would like to help Wellspring Ministries be of service to those in need in Allegany County, financial contributions can be made to: Wellspring Ministries, 5993 County Road 16, Belfast NY 14711. Donations of items to be given away should be brought to the same address. We prefer that donations come to us on Wednesday or Friday between 9 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. You can follow Wellspring Ministries on Facebook for announcements and news.
