Free church meals feed the spirit by fulfilling volunteers, those who hunger

“It’s the idea that this church believes and tries to live out the philosophy that Jesus talked about on the Sermon on the Mount,” Mrs. Yousey said in Emmanuel’s kitchen while she and Justin R. Fish, who is recovering from addiction and has found salvation at Emmanuel, prepared a recent night’s main course of turkey and gravy served over mashed potatoes or bread.

“That message is, we are to love everyone and we are to love our neighbors as ourselves,” Mrs. Yousey said. “Regardless of their color, their sexual preferences, regardless of nationalities or whatever. I believe Jesus calls us to love all people. Sometimes, that’s really hard. But at least we’re trying. I feel that feeding these people that live on the street is just a very basic thing that Jesus would ask us to do.”

A call to help the homeless became a priority in Watertown as this winter set in, exposing a problem. Eventually an overnight warming center was established at the Salvation Army, 723 State St., where the homeless can stay between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. during winter months.

But an issue remained; one that vexed Watertown Urban Mission executive director Cherelyn (“Cher”) A. VanBrocklin and others.

“While the county was working with the Salvation Army to try to get the warming center up and running, an issue that was identified was that most of the human service organizations closed between 4:30 and 5,” Ms. VanBrocklin said. “And if the warming center doesn’t open until 8, what happens for those three hours?”

Several area churches are partners with the Urban Mission. A plan was proposed: Some of those churches could provide free hot meals on cold nights.

“Emmanuel church, being relatively close to the Salvation Army, is one such church,” Ms. VanBrocklin said. “And they have redone their kitchen, which is awesome.”

The meals at the churches are available to anyone, not just to those seeking the warming shelter. Emmanuel provides the hot meals on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Asbury United Methodist Church, 200 Parker St., serves them from 5:30 to 8 p.m. on Wednesdays, and First United Methodist Church, 236 Mullin St., offers the free meals from 5 to 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

“We want to offer hot meals for people who are unstable or homeless or in an immediate risk of being homeless, or just food insecure,” Ms. VanBrocklin said. “Because sometimes, that’s the only hot meal they get during the day.”

One seasonal issue may jeopardize the First United Methodist Church meal program. It’s a 20-minute walk from the Mullin Street church to the Salvation Army.

“We have concerns if people are walking, to and from, in that type of weather, it’s probably not the safest of conditions,” Ms. VanBrocklin said. “We don’t know how much longer First United will do it. We’re currently looking for another spot in close proximity to the Salvation Army.”

On Thursday evening, Glenn A. Gerrish was grateful for the night’s main menu at Emmanuel of pork and stuffing with sweet potatoes. He just moved back to Watertown about a month ago after helping to take care of his mother in Burlington, Vermont. He returned to Watertown when his mom moved into an assisted living facility.

Mr. Gerrish, 68, has a car and lives near Bradley Street. “I just have no money to buy food right now,” he said. “All of these churches — I go to one every night. I’m covered for supper seven nights a week.”

He also goes to the Salvation Army, which he said suggested the church meals program to him. “This saves me, between this and the Salvation Army,” he said. “I get stuff from the Salvation Army, but you don’t always get enough to make a meal. But here, I get some meat, some vegetables and even a little dessert.”

An ‘outward’ approach

David H. Neuroth, Clayton, a trustee at Emmanuel, said the food program is off to an excellent start thanks to Mrs. Yousey and other volunteers.

“Our church was trying to look more outward to serve the community,” Mr. Neuroth said. “Before this winter, and the COVID setback, we were trying to consider what we could do to be more outward. We thought there are people in this neighborhood, not the richest part of town, where lots of people have rentals and they have kids and it’s hard to make a go of it. We started out with the idea that we’d build this kitchen and offer free meals to anybody in the neighborhood. That’s still the case.”

Church officials approved the plan for a new kitchen in 2021 and it opened in early December 2022. A total of $30,000 was budgeted, but some divine luck boosted the project. A parishioner at Emmanuel noticed an online auction where some equipment from a culinary program at a Board of Cooperative Educational Services program near Rochester was up for bid. The program was getting new equipment and a buyer was sought for its old equipment. The starting bid was $400.

“Our guy, a former BOCES employee, watched it,” Mr. Neuroth said of the auction. “He realized the items were worth a lot more than that. He watched the sale during vacation in Mexico.”

The church ending up with the winning bid of $425. Volunteers, with a pickup truck towing a 12-foot U-Haul carrier, traveled to the BOCES program to haul it all back to Emmanuel. Among the bounty: two stainless steel prep tables and other tables, scores of silverware, racks, storage bins, trays, pots and pans, food carriers and plates.

It all found a home in the new kitchen, where volunteers, among other tasks, tore down and put in new walls, new flooring, new windows, new plumbing and rewired the electricity. The work may have also prevented a disaster waiting to happen.

In the new kitchen, Mr. Neuroth called a visitor’s attention to an electrical outlet, which was once connected to a garbage disposal. As the room was being renovated, a worker mentioned to Mr. Neuroth that the outlet didn’t have power, which was unusual. “It shouldn’t be left like that,” Mr. Neuroth, a retired mechanical engineer, said. Since the walls were going to be replaced, he tore into the wall with a hammer to expose the electrical box.

“I broke the box free and expected maybe a little bit of wire to come out,” he said. But he kept pulling — for several seconds.

“I kept pulling, and here comes the wire that had gone down, underneath to another outlet,” he said. “It rotted out and burned off. We were astounded. We may have prevented the church from burning up.”

A ‘passion’ and a heritage

Mrs. Yousey works as an insurance broker. But she has a lifelong cooking background, including once owning a catering business and studying hospitality/culinary arts at Jefferson Community College.

“This is a passion of mine,” she said as she stirred pots, opened packages and exchanged light-hearted banter with Mr. Fish. “I do work full time. That’s why I was a little late getting here today. I had some things come up at my office. I’ve got to keep my customers happy, but it enables me to be able to do this.”

Mrs. Yousey grew up in East Peoria, Illinois, where as a youngster, she was inspired by her mom, Thelma L. Brugger, Peoria, who died in 2017 at the age of 94. Among her volunteer service was as a cook at a day care center.

“My mother made every kind of food under the sun,” Mrs. Yousey said. “My mom fed every living thing, whether it was a dog, cat or person. The other thing I’ve learned in life I guess, and I’m 65, is that even Hollywood knows this: If you feed them they will come. Food is such a basic element and an important need in everyone’s life. For me, to feed people is the very least that I can do what I feel that God asks me to do.”

She as also inspired by her father, Lloyd W. Brugger, who died in 2011 at the age of 89. He was a self-employed contractor, specializing in building churches and children’s homes through the Assemblies of God Mobilization and Placement Services.

“My father was a Gideon,” Mrs. Yousey said. “We would sometimes get phone calls from perfect strangers.”

She recalled one of those phone calls.

“Somehow, one time, someone found out about my father being a Gideon,” Mrs. Yousey said of the international association of Christian business and professional men who are dedicated to distributing God’s word. “He called one night and said, ‘I’m at the bus station here at Peoria and my father always told me if I ever needed anything, I should get a hold of a Gideon, and I found out you were one.’”

The caller, Mrs. Yousey recalled, told her father that he had no money, or food, only a bus ticket to Tennessee. “He said, ‘I’m really hungry and haven’t eaten in a day or two, and I’d really appreciate it if you could help me out, give me some money and food.’”

Her father, she said, told the caller: “I’ll do better than that. Stay where you’re at.’”

“He got in the car, drove 20 minutes, went to the bus station to pick this man up. We never met him before. We didn’t know anything about him. He brought him home.”

Meanwhile, Mrs. Brugger got to work.

“She had roast beef, fried chicken, — all kinds of food,” Mrs. Yousey recalled. “So, my mother taught me that food is something that we don’t need to be selfish with and that we need to share it with people.”

Mrs. Yousey said she suggested the Emmanuel dinners as a way for the church to become more involved in the community.

“The church had done something similar in the past, called Dollar Dinners, involving the Urban Mission,” she said. “It wasn’t a brand new idea, like I came up with the whole idea. But maybe I helped inspire and light a little bit of fire under the idea, and got it roaring.”

Mrs. Yousey came to the north country in the summer of 1989 to volunteer at Beaver Camp, Lowville, a summer and year-round retreat center operated by the Adirondack Mennonite Camping Association.

“I decided I loved it here,” she said. “A couple of months after I decided to move here in 1989, I met my husband.”

Recovering, inspiring

A different path led Mr. Fish, a native of DeRuyter, Madison County, to Emmanuel’s kitchen.

“I actually came up here for recovery,” he said. “I was addicted to drugs and alcohol for about six years before I started to get better.

His path to recovery was aided by Credo Community Center, a leading substance abuse treatment provider in Northern New York with more than 100 professionals offering transformative programs.

“Then I got involved with Emmanuel church, through the Credo program,” Mr. Fish said. “Here, I met dear Mrs. Holly. Ever since these meals have started and everything, I’ve totally been Holly’s sidekick through the whole process.”

“He’s definitely my right-hand person,” Mrs. Yousey said, and added that for her and others Mr. Fish offers something else.

“He’s an inspiration to the rest of us,” she said. “He’s what gives us hope, that by reaching out to people of different backgrounds, that we can help them in their walk and their journey in life.”

“That’s exactly how it started,” Mr. Fish said. “Emmanuel church has changed my life a lot. I did a lot of that work as well. It’s been absolutely amazing being a part of this and being involved in the whole entire ordeal, although it can be tough to balance everything in the process, working and coming here and doing this. It is totally worth it, every single night, just to be a part of the church.”

During the day, Mr. Fish works as a painter. During the renovation of the kitchen, he was one of the volunteers, especially one of those helping with the “heavy lifting.”

“They helped tearing everything out, and frankly, our older gentlemen, the trustees, wouldn’t have been able to do that, physically,” Mrs. Yousey said. “I believe in the saying, ‘Pay it forward.’ I think that’s a lot of what Justin is doing and some of the others who have come from Credo.”

She added that in addition to male volunteers from Credo, women associated with the program have volunteered at the dinner program.

“The church is amazing because it’s nondenominational,” Mr. Fish said. “There’s no prejudice against absolutely anybody or anything. It’s great for recovering addicts to come here and start fresh. And to start fresh in the Lord’s eyes as well. It’s a beautiful thing.”

Mr. Fish said that on Wednesday evenings, he attends an Anchor Recovery Center of Northern New York program.

“Then I do Bible study right after that at First Baptist Church,” he said. “I’m going to start to come here for Bible study as well.”

It’s all quite a change for Mr. Fish, who wasn’t a religious person before finding Emmanuel.

“Mainly, Emmanuel church has given me something to do, something to inspire my time, more or less, in one aspect, compared to another. Instead of a negative thing, I’m working on more positive things now because of what Emmanuel has done.”

When a reporter asked the pair if he could take photos, Mrs. Yousey at first demurred. She wasn’t prepared. But her kitchen partner encouraged her.

“You’re just looking so good!” Mr. Fish told her. “You are absolutely dashing!”

“Dashing!?” Mrs. Yousey responded. “That’s the other reason I keep him around. Just because he keeps me entertained. He’s like a comedian.”

Volunteers sought

Mr. Neuroth said that the maximum amount of diners Emmanuel church has hosted was 15.  Some visitors have stopped by just to give donations. There’s room for more to be served the meals, hosted in the church’s Anderson Hall. A serving table is set up at the hall, where in addition to the meal of the day, participants can select bread and salad with dressings.

Guests have several tables to choose for seating, and for the weary, stuffed chairs and a couch offer a respite. The hall was dedicated in the memory of Rupert H. Anderson in 1952. He was a prominent member of the church and was also foreman of the Watertown Daily Times press room and stereotype department. He died in 1945.

“We haven’t yet gotten the word clearly to our neighborhood that everyone is welcome,” Mr. Neuroth said. “It takes time.”

Ms. VanBrocklin said the churches involved in the evening meal program are seeking volunteers.

“If anyone is interested, give us a call here at the Urban Mission (315-782-8440) and we can direct them in the right way to go,” she said. “Right now, it’s just people who are members of the church and a couple of volunteers here and there. But the more volunteers, the better, for helping to serve, clean up and just to sit and talk with people while they’re eating. It’s nice to have that fellowship.”

“You’ve got to have a sign-up method, some kind of coordination, so that you know people are going to be here and that some people with better skills would come and be trained in the kitchen so they would properly clean it and close it up and cook the food properly,” Mr. Neuroth said. “That’s going to take some time to develop.”

The pastor of Emmanuel Congregational Church, the Rev. Jamel Javon “JJ” Flag, preached his last sermon at Emmanuel Congregational on Nov. 6. He served as pastor for two years. He accepted a new post as associate minister for pastoral care and justice at Myers Park Baptist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.

It had taken Emmanuel 18 months to find a pastor when the Rev. Flag stepped into the post in 2020. Before then, the Revs. Ronald and Patricia Farr led the church for 28 years before retiring in 2017. The Rev. Jane Wagner served as interim pastor.

Emmanuel Congregational Church is a part of the United Church of Christ. Mr. Neuroth said that state church officials will be working with the Watertown church in the search for a new pastor. “It’ll probably take the better part of this year before we’re formally looking for a new pastor,” he said.

Meanwhile, the church’s bylaws have been tweaked.

“We’ve spent the last three or four months to revise bylaws to make them clear and to reorganize our way of doing business,” Mr. Neuroth said. “We wanted to focus a lot more outside and a lot less inside with our resources. We don’t want to die as a museum. We had to restructure things.”