Pantry Parcels
Monthly shelf-stable boxes packed at the Shiloh Ridge shed and carried out on the first-Saturday routes. Rice, beans, flour, oil, peanut butter, coffee.
31Years in service
47Partner congregations
2,143Parcels, 2024 calendar
94.8%To program, not overhead
// Mission
A quiet fellowship of provision.
Jehovah Jireh Ministries was formed in the autumn of 1994 by seven pastors meeting in the basement of Laurel Fork Union Church. The previous December, three families in their combined congregations had been without heat for portions of the month, and the benevolence offerings gathered were not equal to the need. What began on a legal pad that evening has grown, slowly, into a fellowship of forty-seven partner congregations and roughly two hundred volunteers — still unsalaried, still inclined toward the simplest path between a need and its meeting.
We are not a denomination, a political organization, or a national relief conglomerate. We are a registered 501(c)(3) governed by a seven-member board of elders, accountable to the congregations who partner with us, and committed to doing this work at the scale of a handshake.
// Program areas
Four practical works.
Winter Relief
Seasoned hardwood cords, propane-fill assistance, chimney sweeps, storm-window refit, and the draft-patch crew, November through March.
Pastoral Visitation
Three unpaid chaplains carrying communion, a prayer book, and nothing more — to shut-ins, hospital rooms, and the bereaved.
Parish Support
Modest grants to partner churches for furnace replacement, roof patching, and benevolence replenishment — paid to the vendor, not the general fund.
// The annual rhythm
A calendar shaped by the ridge.
Our year is organized around the seasons of the households we serve, not the fiscal year of a foundation. November's first hard frost opens the winter-relief line. The packing shed's Thursday-evening crew adds a second shift through Advent. A brief pause follows the Epiphany delivery; then the January cold snap, which every year sends the Laurel Fork route out before sunrise. Spring brings the furnace-audit visits and the grain-cooperative order for the summer pantry. Autumn is firewood — cords cut, split, and stacked at the shed behind Shiloh Ridge from late August through October.
The board meets quarterly, on the second Monday. The annual gathering of partner congregations is held the Saturday after harvest. Attendance has not fallen below forty churches in twelve years.
// A word on contact
By introduction.
Because our work flows through existing congregations, we do not publish a public intake line, and we do not staff an office for walk-in inquiries. Families in need are served through their own pastor, who coordinates directly with the board clerk. New partner congregations are considered through existing ministerial relationships and reviewed at the quarterly board meeting.
Currently serving existing partners. Referrals and introductions welcomed through member churches. Winter hours: by arrangement.