Nonprofit serves Christmas meals at Latrobe Street Mission

PARKERSBURG, W.Va. (WTAP) – Nonprofit continues two year tradition of holiday service with community support.

Jon Six Food Ministries served 140 Christmas meals at Latrobe Street Mission on Christmas Day, continuing a two year tradition of providing holiday meals to those in need.

The nonprofit, founded by Jon Six and operating for two years, has served both Thanksgiving and Christmas meals at the mission for the past two years.

This year’s effort involved more than 30 volunteers, including members from Bethel Baptist Church and assistance from Moon King.

“We’re blessed with how many people show up to volunteer, we had over 30 volunteers show up this year and it’s just an amazing ministry and amazing blessing that so many people want to help us,” Six said. “It’s not one person, it’s a whole team of people.”

Bethel Baptist Church funded the Christmas meal, while John Kane donated all the hams for the event.

Six said he chose ham as the main meat after struggling with turkey preparation for large groups in previous servings.

“As far as planning the meal, I sat down and decided what I thought was the best food items to put into our Christmas meal,” Six said. “Our main meat this year was ham, it’s hard to fix turkey for over 100 people.”

Pastor Rob from Bethel Baptist Church said serving the community on Christmas was meaningful.

“Jon Six gave me the opportunity to come here and be a part of their food ministry and I’m always thankful to be able to serve in any way,” Pastor Rob said. “It’s a blessing to be able to help out people who are less fortunate to us and share the love of Christ with others, love our neighbor.”

Moon King’s third annual cookie drive complemented the meal service.

Rosi Smith, assistant to Moon King, said volunteers collected cookies from the community and packed them into tins Dec. 20.

The cookies were then distributed on Christmas to homeless individuals, Latrobe Street Mission, the Salvation Army and senior citizen high rises.

“Our goal with that is to spread Christmas cheer. They don’t have a good home life,” Smith said. “We just want to make sure that everybody feels included during the holidays. Christmas is hard for a lot of people, they struggle really hard during the holidays.”

Moon King provided music during the Christmas meal and sang with Pastor Rob, including a performance of “Oh Holy Night.”

“I think we had a really great turnout. We had a lot of people show up, anybody was welcomed off the streets to come get food,” Moon King said. “We provided music, I played for a bit. Rob obviously provided his services and we actually ended up singing a song together for the first time.”

Six said community support makes the ministry possible.

“Our community is so amazing. Anytime we have a need, they show up, whether it be a Christmas meal or if we need twin sheets here at the mission,” Six said. “It’s a joint effort and we’re blessed with community support.”

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