A group of Ohio University students spent their day off from school in work boots and gloves, tearing down walls, packing boxes of food and delivering these boxes to the hungry.
These student volunteers from the Hillel, United Campus Ministries, Reach Out on Campus, and the Wesley Student Center participated in the second annual MLK Day Interfaith Service project yesterday at the Feed My Sheep food bank in Mineral, Ohio.
Located about 12 miles from Athens, Mineral has a population of about 50, said The Rev. Ray Ogburn, a Mineral resident and the owner/operator of Feed My Sheep, located on Ohio 356.
Ogburn said he was inspired to start a food bank while praying. He said God instructed him to open his Bible to the book of Matthew where he found a passage where Jesus tells Peter to, “feed my sheep.”
He opened the food bank in his house in 2001 and soon after moved to a church in Mineral. The food bank now provides food for between 250 and 300 households in Athens County, Ogburn said.
Feed My Sheep is open every Monday and residents of Athens county can come once a month and receive a free box with a weeks supply food.
“If you give or take a little, I would say we go through about 1500 pounds of food a month... it’s just, astronomical, there can never be enough,” he said.
Evan Young, the pastor of the Unitarian Universalist church and spiritual director of United Campus Ministries, discovered Feed My Sheep through a friend and proposed the project to UCM two years ago.
He first brought students there last year and decided to bring volunteers back again.
He said that the citizens of Athens are many times unaware of the poverty in the county.
“A student could spend four or five years in Athens while going to OU and walk away thinking that it’s pretty much like where they grew up. The reality is that the surrounding area is impoverished and in need of help,” Young said.
The poverty level for Athens County is 31.5 percent according to the 2005 U.S. Census.
The 2006 unemployment rate in Athens County was 5.9 percent according to the Ohio Department of Development. The unemployment rate for the state of Ohio is 5.5 percent according to the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics. This lack of employment opportunity causes problems for citizens in Mineral, Ogburn said.
“Unless you work for the University... you’re going to be going to McDonalds, Burger King ... You ain’t going to have a steady paying job,” Ogburn said
Having enough food to go around is a challenge for Feed My Sheep because food is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain and the number of people in need continues to rise, Ogburn said.
A resident is required to present their ID when picking up food from the shelter and Feed My Sheep keeps a record of who has picked up food. Patty Dickerson, a volunteer at the food bank said by following these guidelines she is sometimes forced to turn people away.
“I hate it ... if they don’t have an ID or something like that, I have to turn them away. I just hate it,” Dickerson said.
Many of the students said they were surprised by the poverty in Mineral.
Shaun Green, a junior telecommunications major at OU came to Mineral with the Interfaith Service Project and said that most OU students “live in a bubble” at OU and don’t realize the reality of living in Athens County.
“At OU there’s so much abundance, and in a town that’s just 5 or 10 miles from Ohio University, there are people that are fighting for food … it’s just a shame. People need to get out there.”
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