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CommunityHe’s not your average Joe: Plemons feeds hungry
Church’s food pantry is labor of love for local man
Friday, May 2, 2008
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by NANCY BROMLEY McCONATY
Kimberly Plemons, left, and her grandfather, Joe Plemons, volunteer to feed the needy in western Charles County every week at Joe’s Place, a food pantry at Christ Church Durham Parish in Ironsides.
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Plemons, a retired U.S. Army sergeant major, is a member of Christ Church Durham Parish in Ironsides. A vestry member asked him to start a food pantry at the tiny church, but at first he said he was a little reluctant to take up the task.
‘‘Then, I decided to check the Nanjemoy area out,” the 78-year-old said. ‘‘I went down all of the side roads. I just wandered around, driving and looking. Some of the living conditions that I saw were depressing. There are a lot of needs down there.”
Plemons said that many of the houses had dirt floors and no indoor plumbing.
‘‘I came back to the church and I told them, ‘OK, let’s do something; we need to get rolling on this,’” he said, adding that it took about five months to set the food pantry up in an available space at the church. ‘‘Every place was being used. There wasn’t really any space.”
Plemons said that he enlisted the aid of fellow parishioner Bill Heisserman to fix up a portion of a back porch on the parish hall to operate the food pantry.
The next challenge was to find affordable nonperishable food to stock the food pantry, Plemons said, adding that the Southern Maryland Food Bank in Hughesville proved to be the answer to his prayers.
For a $50 annual fee, people who operate food pantries, homeless shelters and group homes in Southern Maryland can purchase food for 18 cents a pound, Plemons said. During his first trip, he spent $50 of his own money to begin stocking Joe’s Place food pantry.
Plemons used an unusual advertising gimmick to announce the opening of Joe’s Place to his fellow parishioners.
‘‘I took a wheelbarrow and painted it blue and put an American flag and the Episcopal symbol on both sides of it,” he said. ‘‘On Sunday, I took the wheelbarrow and followed right behind the collection plate to get everybody’s attention.”
Plemons said the parishioners have been very generous in donating money to the food pantry fund. They also drop off nonperishable food items and gently used clothing for people who use the pantry.
Every Thursday around 4:30 p.m., western Charles County’s needy folks begin lining up to receive some of the food at the pantry, including canned meats, vegetables, fruit, peanut butter, cereal, spaghetti sauce, dry and evaporated milk, pasta, spices, children’s vitamins and soup.
‘‘We open at 5, but at 4:30 if people are waiting at the door we let them in,” he said. ‘‘We don’t stand on ceremony here.”
Often, there is also a supply of frozen deer meat and other food items to hand out that is kept in a small freezer in the parish hall.
And, those in need do come, Plemons said. Some are regular visitors while other people show up during particularly hard times and are not seen again.
As the economy worsens, more and more people will be showing up at Joe’s Place, he said.
The food pantry opened in June 2006 and by the end of the year 408 families had received a three-day supply of food, Plemons said. In 2007, that number had jumped to 1,194 families. So far this year, 750 families have been served, he said.
‘‘We’re seeing more and more people who are caught between a rock and a hard place,” he said. ‘‘Even though they have jobs, there’s no way that they can get back and forth to work and feed their families. Once you’re down, it’s hard to get back up.”
Kimberly Plemons helps her grandfather operate Joe’s Place that is opened from 5 to 7 p.m. every Thursday.
‘‘He’s wonderful; he puts a smile on my face,” she said. ‘‘He does so much to help so many people. How can you not appreciate that?”
Kimberly said she has also seen a sharp rise in the number of people who use the food pantry in recent months.
‘‘We see new faces every week,” she said. ‘‘As little as two new families or as many as 10 come in every week that needs help. It’s going to continue to grow the way gas prices are and the housing market.”
Nanjemoy residents Jewel and Norman Terry regularly volunteer at Joe’s Place.
‘‘I’ve always wanted to help feed the hungry; my husband and I used to talk about it, but we didn’t know how to get started,” she said. ‘‘Then we met Joe.”
It is heartbreaking to see how grateful people are who regularly turn up at Joe’s Place, Terry said.
‘‘Some who come here never leave without giving us hugs and saying ‘God bless you;’ they’re sweet people,” she said. ‘‘We know that they really appreciate what they get from the food pantry.”
‘‘A lot of people who come in here for help have got to cut something if they want to get to work,” said volunteer Candy Nelson. ‘‘Unfortunately, for some people that means food.”
The Rev. David MacDonald, church rector, said Plemons is unbelievable.
‘‘Two years ago we realized that there was a crying need for a food pantry down here and we knew that Joe had experience with it,” he said, adding Plemons ran a food pantry at Christ Church in La Plata. ‘‘One thing led to another and now it’s got a life of its own. A lot of people need help and Joe and his volunteers are helping them. I’m really proud of them.”
Brenda DiCarlo, program manager for the Southern Maryland Food Bank, said Plemons is doing a fantastic job in addressing the issue of hunger in western Charles.
‘‘Joe is wonderful,” she said. ‘‘The amount of work that Joe and his volunteers are able to do to help the people in that area is extraordinary. It’s one of our most successful food pantries.”
The food bank serves more than 40 food pantries, group homes and homeless shelters in Southern Maryland, DiCarlo said, adding that almost 500,000 pounds of nonperishable food are handed out each year.
‘‘You can’t rein Joe in; he wants to do as much as he can and we’re glad to be able to help him do that,” she said.
But, Plemons takes it all in stride, vowing to continue to feed hungry people in western Charles as long as he can.
‘‘I grew up having a need; I lost my mother and father when I was very young,” he said. ‘‘I see families who have a need and I have a desire to fulfill that need.
‘‘We will continue as long as we can,” he added. ‘‘The demand is great and getting greater and greater all of the time ... The need is there. It’s always been there.”
