Scouts help those in need at Fellowship Cup

A line was already forming outside the door of the Fellowship Cup building Saturday morning when Nathan Hough, Scoutmaster for Troop 28, began explaining to his Scouts the procedure that would be used to help distribute goods to people who needed assistance.

The Scouts gathered around tables that had been lined up just inside the main doors of the building to help give out anything that could be needed during the season, including food, toiletries, blankets, towels and the like. The tables were part of the annual Fellowship Cup Christmas give-out, which provides items for the needy during the Christmas season.

'For Boy Scouts we have to do service projects, which is service to our community,” he said. 'The Fellowship Cup is something that does a great service for our community so we offer our services to Fellowship Cup and the boys get hours to be able to advance to their next level.”

Ken Brown, director of the Fellowship Cup, said the food distribution finishes up a busy year for the Fellowship Cup's programs. The give-out provided goods for about 130 households in the area during a two hour window the give-out was held.

Brown said during the 2018 year, Fellowship Cup had generated about 12,000 volunteer hours throughout the year with about 15 service programs.

'We are a faith-based nonprofit,” he said. 'We have been in business for 37 years. It started off with a group of folks in the community who wanted a place to have fellowship, and it evolved when the community members wanted to do something to help people.”

Brown described some of the programs the group has held during the year. During the summer a free lunch program was offered. About 3,000 free and reduced cost lunches were given at a rate of about 150 per week. He also said the Fellowship Cup food pantry served about 20,000 individuals throughout the year, averaging 150 households per week. The Fellowship Cup also offers utility assistance. There are also programs that provide transportation for people in the community.

Brown said the next project the Fellowship Cup is working on is to find people in need of home repairs to be part of the Southeast Iowa Regional Planning Commissions assistance program with home repairs. He said applicants have to be a homeowner. Interested parties can get more information by calling Brown at the Fellowship Cup at (319) 385-3242. He said that he would pass potential applicants along to the people in charge of the program.