EMERGENCY RELIEF PROGRAMS

In the mid 1970s The House of the Carpenter helped to feed 50 families each month; today we feed 850 families every month. We operate the area’s largest food pantry, and (excluding tax supported programs like food stamps) the region’s largest program to fight hunger.

Twenty years ago, about 15 people a day visited our emergency clothing shelter; today almost 100 people every day seek our help. We also help with emergencies like utilities, medicine, rent, transportation, furniture, holiday gifts and dozens of other essentials for people with nowhere else to turn.

In addition to helping people in need, The House of the Carpenter develops long-range programs to address root causes of hunger and poverty, and to meet our community’s health, education and human rights needs. We have helped to organize and develop a number of programs that have become valuable community resources:

Wheeling Health Right - organized in 1986 to provide free medical care for people in need; currently more than 10,000 people receive their medical care from volunteer physicians and other medical professionals at Health Right.

Mountain State Public Guardian. Inc. - created in 1987 to advocate for and assist people who have developmental disabilities such as mental retardation.

Project CAPE - started in 1989 to help young parents finish their education while their children attend Head Start; the program is an effort to break the cycle of poverty.

Coalition for the Homeless - organized in 1990 to help people who are homeless or at risk of losing their homes.

Monitored  Parent Visitation - This parenting center provides a place for  children of divorced parents to have a safe environment in which parents visit with their children. This was the first one started in the Northern Panhandle of WV.