How We Help

Our Programs

Our Mission

Our mission is to provide physical assistance to families in crisis situations, in many cases, long-term suffering and financial poverty. A crisis may be defined as:

Home fire or weather related disasters such as floods or storms
Main breadwinner out of work due to job layoff, injury, or illness
Families caught up in generations of poverty due to minimal education and illiteracy
Disabled and elderly people who cannot make ends meet on low, fixed incomes
Single parents trying to raise small children alone
Individuals who are under employed raising families on or barely above minimum wage
Seasonal workers who cannot get work during the cold weather months
Individuals who are transient, homeless, or stranded

Our Program

Reconciliation House serves the community by providing our clients with food boxes as they work to make ends meet in other aspects of their lives due to employers reducing scheduled work hours, low wages, low fixed income, and cuts in the food stamp program, We are seeing an increasing need from families as they struggle to sustain themselves each month. In 2015 we provided 3,122 food boxes. In addition to clients' choice of packaged foods, we offer their choice of fresh produce, eggs, bread, and frozen meats. Our food ministry tackles community needs not being addressed by other agencies.

Families also struggle with food during the summer when children are home during the school break. Over 50% of the children in the Yancey school system are on "free" and "reduced" school meals. In the summer of 2016, we partnered with Grahams Children Hospital, Dig In Yancey community garden, TRACTOR program of the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Yancey County, and Yancey Transportation to help feed 100 families with children through a Summer Food program. We made 6 deliveries to the children's homes with boxes with nonperishable food items, fresh locally grown produce, a children's book, and a copy of Good and Cheap: Eat Well on $4/Day. A total of 600 boxes were delivered.

Our Impact

Everyday Reconciliation House serves our neighbors in Yancey County by providing food, clothing, and necessary household items who are struggling to make ends meet due to employers reducing scheduled work hours, low wages, low fixed income, cuts in the food stamp program, sickness, or injury.

Yearly we approximately serve 3,000 families with food boxes. Give out over 13,000 items of clothing, and over 2,000 household items to families in need. A $8 Donation to Reconciliation House will provide a food box for a family of four.

Over the last 33 years we have helped a large portion of the community that has fallen on hard times. Building on this experience, Reconciliation House continues to improve and increase its benefit to the community. Reconciliation House works with local churches and other local organizations including: Dig In! Yancey Community Garden, Burnsville Farmers Market, First Baptist Community Garden, the TRACTOR program of the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Yancey County, local farmers, and individual gardeners to efficiently coordinate this hunger relief effort. With over 70 rotating volunteers serving over 600 hours of service a month, we have the manpower to distribute food to those in need in the community. This is a great example of community helping community.

Testimonials

We recently had a client come to us for food. She had recently been hospitalized and unable to work for three days. She said

"I make minimum wage, I already have a hard time making ends meet. I can’t afford to miss any days of work. If I don’t work, I don’t get paid."

Another client recently came to volunteer and help pack food boxes for the children’s summer food program. She said,

"You have helped me so often, it is great to be able to help back."

This summer we have had hundreds of pounds of produce donated by local farmers, community gardens, and home gardeners. There have been many happy faces when we hand them a grocery bag and tell them

“take as much as your family can use”.

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