COVINGTON — Jacob's Well, a soup kitchen that served 300 meals a day before flames destroyed it in June, will reopen its doors on Thanksgiving.

        Mason and Barb Barker, the ordained Church of Fellowship ministers who run Jacob's Well, want to christen the revamped facility at 222 Pike St. with a full holiday meal.

Melvin Chancy (left) and Michael Burchfield prepare green beans for the Thanksgiving meal at Jacob's Well. (Patrick Reddy photo) | ZOOM |

        The Thanksgiving Day meal, to include turkey, potatoes, vegetables and plenty of desserts, is the Barkers' way of welcoming back many homeless people.

        “There's no way we can't open it,” Mrs. Barker said.

        Representatives from other Northern Kentucky soup kitchens are grateful there'll be one more place to feed some of the region's most downtrodden on a day when the comfort of a warm meal is especially vital.

        On any given night, 700,000 people in the United States are homeless, advocates say. According to the National Coalition for the Homeless in Washington, D.C., there are up to 2 million in any given year.

        “They really have no place to go. They have to have a sense of home, a sense of family (or risk) an incredible sense of loneliness,” said Molly Navin of Catholic Charities' Parish Kitchen, which began operating as a soup kitchen at 141 Pike St. in 1974.

IF YOU GO

• ECHO Soup Kitchen, 901 York St., Newport, will serve a full Thanksgiving dinner today from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Last year, more than 140 people were served Thanksgiving dinners, Executive Director Karen Yates said.     • The Parish Kitchen, in the rear of 141 Pike St., Covington, serves dinner every day from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and will serve a traditional Thanksgiving dinner on Thanksgiving Day. Each year about 200 people have a free Thanksgiving dinner from the Parish Kitchen, director Molly Naven said.     • The Storehouse Ministries Jacob's Well Soup Kitchen, 222 Pike St., Covington, will serve Thanksgiving dinner on Thanksgiving Day from 3 to 7 p.m.     • Fairhaven Rescue Mission, 260 W. Pike St., Covington, expects to serve 100 Thanksgiving dinners to the poor and homeless at 6 p.m.     • Northern Kentucky Community Center, 824 Greenup St., Covington, expects to serve between 75 and 100 Thanksgiving dinners from noon to 3 p.m. Thanksgiving Day.

        Karen Yates is executive director of ECHO, an ecumenical social services agency that serves 120 meals a day, every Monday through Friday.

        “There's always that core of people that have nowhere to go and no one to be with,” she said. If no one serves them a meal, “they're ... on the outside looking in, watching all that stuff happen,” Ms. Yates said.

        Jacob's Well is an extension of Storehouse Ministries, which the Barkers founded in 1983 to help the poor, hungry and homeless. The agency provides job training, clothing, furniture, shelter and religious-based counseling.

        The nonprofit agency operates out of various locations including 222 Pike St. That facility housed Storehouse's soup kitchen and Eagle Life Change Program, a shelter for the homeless, before flames destroyed the building June 12.

        The Barkers still don't know the cause of the fire, but they think it started in first-floor kitchen cabinets that stored aprons for soup-kitchen workers. The first floor, which housed the soup kitchen, was completely destroyed. The second floor, which housed the shelter, suffered water and smoke damage.

        Members of the Eagle Life Change Program slept on the floors of Storehouse's offices after the fire. In the days after, many returned to life on the streets.

        “When the fire destroyed the building, we were left with a mess,” Mr. Barker said. “Food in the pantry was burned to ashes. Food in the freezers was destroyed by power failure. Kitchen tables and chairs were charred and blackened. The hardest vision was seeing the few belongings of the homeless men heaped in sooty bundles.

        “Everything looked so hopeless, and it seemed impossible to imagine finding the strength to start over.”

        But the shelter and soup kitchen generates the most donations for Storehouse. The Barkers knew that Storehouse couldn't do without those programs.

        Approximately $150,000 has gone toward revamping the building. The Barkers are now in negotiations to have their insurance company pay the full amount.

        They are welcoming the day when they can serve the homeless again. The kitchen has shiny, new equipment, and the dining area has many tables to welcome diners.

        It will be even more decked out for Thanksgiving. Feast of Love, a group of area churches, is providing the food.

        The Barkers said it will take a few days before they are ready to start cooking food for the soup kitchen patrons. But they still will be serving a meal.

        “There'll be some sort of meal served every day,” Mrs. Barker said.

        The Eagle Life Change Program, a nine-month shelter program that also tackles job training, can serve up to 30 men. Its shelter already is serving about 20.

       

Turkey Bowl: Fans divided, but communities united
Boone County Museum to tell biblical story
Cold catches shelters unawares
Genesis could be sued by city
N. Ky. Republican off to Fla. for recount
Butler GOP chief to leave as winner
Downtown boycott urged for death of black man
Children, teachers say thanks together
CROWLEY: The other cheek
Do more to fight drugs, county told
Fernald finish date now 2010
Fire-ravaged soup kitchen to serve again on Thanksgiving
Freedom center's design to be unveiled
Ky. Powerball sales soar
Middletown loses manager to schools
Prank caller receives 45 days and $500 fine
Sludge cleanup intrudes on lives
Tax evader sent to prison
Vandals strike again at Edgewood schools
Village targets teen home
Kentucky News Briefs
Tristate A.M. Report