Leader-Herald |
One person in four in Fulton County doesn’t always know where their next meal is coming from. One Church Street in Johnstown wants to change that, and announced last week $58,000 in donations to build a $1.4 million community kitchen.
The Wesson Group of Johnstown donated $50,000 and the Johnstown Hospital Foundation contributed $8,000.
“Our generous community is really stepping up,” said One Church Street steering committee Chair Tom Bell in a release.
The donations were part of the organization’s Miracle on Church Street campaign, which continues until Jan. 6, said steering committee member Nancy Brown on Wednesday.
The nonprofit has raised more than $270,000 for the kitchen, Brown said.
The organization opened the first floor of its facility in August 2024 following five years of fundraising and a $2.4 million renovation. The original opening price was $1.1 million, Brown said, but supply chain problems caused by the COVID-19 pandemic doubled that, to $2.2 million, and then raised again.
Plans to open the second floor have been in the works ever since. The facility, besides the kitchen and dining space, would:
The kitchen and renovation would also give the organization the capability to host both a children’s after-school program, a Code Blue warming shelter in the winter and a cooling center in the summer, Brown said.
“It really is the heart of the building,” she said.
Tim Delaney, president of the Wesson Group, a renewable energy and construction company, could not be reached for comment Wednesday. The Johnstown Hospital Foundation was formed in 1988 with assets from the closing Johnstown Hospital. It has awarded $3.9 million in grants since 1993.
“They understand how important the One Church Street Community Kitchen will be,” Bell said.
The foundation works to improve the health and safety of Johnstown residents. State Department of Health data suggest the need is there. It reports that 25% of Fulton County residents have had worries about acquiring nutritious food, or couldn’t get it at all, in the preceding 12 months, it reported in 2023.
Adults experiencing food insecurity are more likely to have high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, diabetes, stroke, cancer, asthma, arthritis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and kidney disease, the department reports.
The food pantry on One Church Street’s first floor served more than 68,000 meals in 2024, and probably more this year, with a six-week interruption of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program during the federal shutdown, Brown said.
Of those 68,000 meals last year, 31% fed children, which gives One Church Street a certain urgency in raising the money.
“In a perfect world, we’d love to have it open by the end of next year,” Brown said.
The group has received a bequest that would allow it to maintain the facility, once open, she added.
“We really are fortunate our future is secure. We just have to catch up.”
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