se food for preparation Saturday at the Marietta drop-in center, 312 Front St.

“I’m sure there are people that (have) lost faith that are homeless,” said Steve Porter, a trustee of the First Congregational Church. “You know, ‘I lost my job, lost my house, I lost my car, I’m living in a tent for God’s sakes. I don’t hardly have three sets of clothes,’ I can understand; there’s nothing wrong with questioning your faith.”

The church has built rapport over two years providing a free breakfast first in the church’s fellowship hall and then throughout the pandemic as a drive-by offering on the front steps.

They served backed breakfasts and lunches below the historic bells and across from the Start Westward Monument, actions which members said practiced their faith.

Saturday, volunteers of multiple faiths and creeds gathered to preview today’s expansion of that once-per-week meal.

“God loves you regardless and God cares about you,” said Porter as he offered the open invitation to welcome any individual in need of a warm place to stop, dry off, have a hot meal, shower and wash their clothes: every day between noon and 5 p.m. at 312 Front St.

Locally, officials have referred to temporary day shelter from bitter temperatures like the Mid-Ohio Valley again faces this week as a “warming center.”

In 2018, former Safety-Service Director Jonathan Hupp opened a room at the Armory on Front Street and he coordinated cot and food supplies delivered to that city property in what federal agencies call a “drop-in” offering to those living in the woods, tents and shelters without heat during cold snaps.

Members of the First Congregational Church worked with officials throughout 2020 to expand that idea as an extension of the church’s free breakfast program.

With final donations for paid plain-clothes security funded by the Sisters of Saint Joseph and an anonymous donor providing outdoor kerosene heaters for overflow in the church’s fenced back yard, that effort to act as a “Good Samaritan” continues.

Volunteers gathered Saturday to sign up for times to cook hot meals, offer support and lend an listening ear.

“There are people in your community that care about you,” said Porter. “And whatever you face, whether it’s a mental illness or health, you have people in your church and in the community that are there to support you and help you.

Volunteers gathered included Agnostics, Baptists, Methodists, Unitarians and individuals not identifying themselves as tied to any local congregations.

But regardless of their differences in tradition, they toured the kitchen, family room, dining room laundry room, basement and overflow for shifts and planning this week’s meals.

What’s next: Marietta is predicted to see negative temperatures this week, organizers stated the hope that with word of mouth this week, sends those most vulnerable to the elements to the doors of the parsonage.

For more on this shelter and how it will operate, see a future edition of The Marietta Times

Janelle Patterson may be reached at jpatterson@mariettatimes.com.