BECKLEY, WV (WOAY) – The Beckley Day of Hope marks a time when local churches and organizations come together to serve the community with a food distribution.
John Jordan, a pastor with the Calvary Assembly of God in Beckley helped coordinate the Day of Hope, and he says this is a time for everyone to come together and show their support to the community.
“We’re once again just trying to offer hope to our community by providing them some staple supplies to meet some of their needs,” Jordan said.
In the first hour alone of the Day of Hope, hundreds of cars came through and lined the parking lot of the Raleigh County Convention Center. As well, more than 100 volunteers took time out of their day to help with the distribution.
“As far as volunteers, I think we’ve got about somewhere between 120-140 volunteers representing 15 different churches and several different organizations. We targeted maybe we would have 600 cars and we’ve been open for about an hour and a half, and counting the cars that are already lined up, we have already exceeded the 600 cars.”
Some of what the community received today included packed lunches, groceries, socks and even backpacks for school kids. The distribution lasted roughly four hours. And due to the pandemic, it was exclusively drive-thru style, and volunteers all wore masks. It’s estimated that thousands of community members around the Beckley area came out to participate.
Each year the Day of Hope takes months of planning, with initial planning stages taking place six months prior.
