PIKE CREEK — For the past five years, Table of Plenty Outreach has been providing emergency assistance to people in the Pike Creek area from its home at Community of Christ Church on Milltown Road. The organization will now be able to make some much-needed improvements thanks to a grant it has receive through New Castle County.
Table of Plenty, which is a ministry of St. John the Beloved Parish, received a grant of $23,000 in American Rescue Plan funds that the county still had to distribute. The plan, passed in 2021, was designed to help individuals and organizations rebound in the wake of the covid pandemic. Jamie Moulthrop, the director of outreach for Table of Plenty, said most of the money will be used for “revitalizing and revamping” the organization’s long-term storage facility, which is on the grounds of St. John the Beloved, located just up Milltown Road from Table of Plenty. The organization will get new storage bins, shelving, moving ladders and flooring at the storage facility, and they will be replenishing the food pantry.
“Piecemealing it, which we’ve been able to do traditionally … isn’t really going to get it done anymore,” Moulthrop said.
Robyn Correale, who did some projects for Table of Plenty’s benefit when she worked in youth ministry at St. John the Beloved, helped the organization get the grant. A brother-in-law who works for New Castle County told her about the availability of the ARPA funds. Correale checked with Moulthrop about the needs and with New Castle County Councilwoman Janet Kilpatrick, then went to work writing a grant application for the first time.
“I’ve never been a grant writer or had any experience in this. It was a little bit of a challenge going through all of the fine print,” Correale said.
She was able to relay the news to Moulthrop that the application had been approved. “It was a good feeling just to know that the fruits of our efforts had paid off and that it would be able to benefit Table of Plenty.”
The demand for assistance certainly has not gotten any lighter. Last year, Table of Plenty distributed more than 20,000 lbs. of clothing and anticipates reaching that weight again this year, Moulthrop said. In the case of food, funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture has been cut post-covid, and the outreach has been hit by inflation.
“We’ve grown way beyond our historic capacity to serve. It’s important that we find new resources,” he added.
Table of Plenty, which started as a traditional outreach program at St. John the Beloved, is a collaboration of six churches: St. John the Beloved, Resurrection and St. Catherine of Siena parishes, Community of Christ, Red Clay Creek Presbyterian and St. Barnabas Episcopalian. The outreach is open three days a week from 9-11 a.m.
“It’s really a great way to promote that people of faith come together to do really great things,” Moulthrop said.
He and approximately 25 volunteers provide emergency food and clothing assistance to families and individuals in the Pike Creek and Mill Creek area, he continued. They serve about 115 families a week, supplying meat, produce, bread and pantry staples. They try to make their food as nutritious as possible.
“Health and wellness has really become a big project for us,” he said.
More information about Table of Plenty is available at www.tableofplentyde.org.
Photos by Mike Lang.
