Community

Energy utility taps into The Source with a six-figure gift honoring its effort to quell food insecurity

WESTOVER - An energy utility just teed off on The Source, and the Rev. Kevin Cain couldn't be happier about it.

"This is an incredible example of what can happen when a community comes together with a purpose," the local clergyman and organizer said.

Cain - "Rev Kev" to all who know him - is the founder of Kingdom: a Community Church, which is known for its community ministries across the region.

One of those ministries was an outgrowth of all those weekly meals he and his wife would prepare and host for all those Fellowship of Christian Athletes members across Monongalia County.

Breaking bread with football and basketball players considering their spiritual place in the world started him thinking about other young people here who didn't know - fundamentally and literally - where their next meal was coming from.

So, in 2010, he tapped in big.

That's when he got going with The Source, the aforementioned backpack feeding program that was just gifted a check in the amount of $324,412.88 from Northeast Natural Energy.

Headquartered in Morgantown, Northeast Natural Energy is a natural gas exploration and production concern doing work across Appalachia while also bringing a call of environmental stewardship to its mission, as the company says.

The offering represents proceeds from the energy company's inaugural Charity Golf Classic last month, said Mike John, Northeast Natural's president, founder and CEO.

Donating to The Source, he said, was a natural.

"This is why we chose The Source as our inaugural beneficiary," John said.

"Their work is local, it's tangible and it's making a difference for children and families every week," the company founder continued.

For Cain, that means The Source, which fills backpacks and lunch bags with nutritional snacks for 600 youngsters every weekend, can be funded for a full year.

Which is what got the clergyman into all this in the first place, he said.

Students in Mon Schools can partake of free lunch and breakfast, but what happens on the weekend, Cain asked, when classrooms are dark and the cafeteria is closed?

What happens, he mused further, when the refrigerator is empty and the cupboards are bare at home?

Food insecurity is the issue, Cain said - and the state of which is just as clinical as it is socioeconomic.

To be food insecure, he preaches, means you're simply unable to get enough on your plate to sustain yourself, nutritionally.

It's everywhere in West Virginia.

As many as 1 in 5 children across the Mountain State go to bed with growling bellies, according to numbers in the recent past culled by Feeding America, the online nutrition watchdog group.

Some 2,000 children in relatively prosperous Mon County have also been classified as food insecure, using those same numbers.

In a place known for its winding mountain roads, the gift from Northeast Natural Energy, Cain said, is helping forge a straight route to the ultimate elimination of food insecurity and childhood hunger.

"In Monongalia County and beyond," he said.

Visit thesourcewv.org for more information and how you can volunteer.

The stipulation to sign on is easy.

"If your heart moves you to give of your time, talents and treasure," Cain said.