Community Services / Family Assistance

Food Pantry

Families in need can register for our food pantry and we serve approximately 250 families who are at or below the poverty income level. The families we serve range from single person households to families with children. Each family can visit the pantry once a month.

Each box contains a variety of nutritional food; enough to feed the family for three to five days. We receive USDA commodity food at no cost from God's Pantry out of Lexington, Kentucky. We also purchase other food items from them at a drastically reduced rate, making each dollar stretch farther to help the families that we serve. For approximately $35, we can provide food to one family each month. We also accept food donations at anytime throughout the year. Both monetary and in kind are what makes our food pantry successful.

Personal Hygiene Items

Because the state-funded food stamp program does not provide for persons on the program to buy hygiene products, Henderson Settlement provides families with hygiene kits that include things like shampoo, soap, toothpaste, etc. All of these products are donated to us by generous individuals and groups. As with the food boxes, each family can pick up a kit once a month. On average, fifty families receive personal hygiene kits each month.

Utility Bill Assistance

In emergency situations we help families with utilities to prevent eviction and/or disconnection of utilities. In most cases families can only receive assistance once per year. We insist that families be responsible for a portion of their bill and we make payments directly to the utility company.

When families find themselves evicted or have lost their home due to fire or other disasters we can help them with rent, electric, and water. The majority of our funding comes from individuals who support this program. We do receive an occasional grant, but the funds are not sufficient to meet the needs of the community. The success of our ministry is dependent on people like you because we do not have the funding to adequately help those in need.

We also collaborate with other agencies to better serve our clients. During the winter months when heating bills are the highest we work with Bell Whitley Community Action Agency to help our clients. They can provide money, which they receive from the government for electric bills or help purchase wood, coal or fuel from local vendors. The Henderson Settlement farm is actually one of the venders that provide wood to the area.

Medical Assistance

We have been fortunate to receive funding to provide medical transports to doctor's offices and hospitals. We also give financial assistance for medication, doctor's bills, eye glasses and dental care which encourages many in our area to seek medical care and improve health outcomes for families. We received funding from the Good Samaritan Foundation, a ministry of the Kentucky Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, and the Steele Reese Foundation. Some of our clients receive help toward eye glasses from the Pineville Lion's Club that helps with the glasses and Henderson Settlement that helps with the exam fees. In most cases the client has to pay a small amount of the expense. Occasionally, we have a client that is eligible to receive a pair of glasses from the KY Eye Institute.

Budgeting

With donations as our major funding source for emergency situations we have struggled to maintain the services to our needy families. Many of our clients are single parent families of women and children with income far below the poverty level. Budgeting is very difficult for some of our clients who do not receive enough income to properly feed their families and keep their monthly household bills paid. Some families must choose between paying their rent or water bill or having enough food on the table. This is when they will contact our office where they will receive help in making a budget to help make every dollar stretch farther.