Reading, PA –
When New Journey Community Outreach Inc. volunteer Antonio Juan Carrero first entered the south Reading center about six years ago, he was at a low point in life: addicted to heroin, estranged from family and without a home.
And he was hungry.
Carrero, 39, found more than just a nourishing meal at the nonprofit, 138 S. Sixth St.
“This place has been my safe haven,” he said. “I started coming here, and somehow, just started volunteering, and I’ve been here ever since.”
New Journey Community Outreach food program coordinator Jeff Laylon, left, and volunteer Antonio Juan Carrero serve a bagged lunch to a guest of the outreach. New Journey is celebrating its 10th anniversary as a stand-alone nonprofit. Many of the organization’s volunteers started as guests. (MICHELLE LYNCH – READING EAGLE)
Carrero, who kicked heroin four years ago, said New Journey supported and helped him through the tough times.
More than a soup kitchen, the outreach helps restore hope, comfort and dignity by feeding, clothing and otherwise supporting those in need in the greater Reading community.
New Journey is celebrating its 10th anniversary as a stand-alone nonprofit this year.
Founded as a mission of New Journey United Methodist Church, it was incorporated as a nonprofit after the congregation merged with West Lawn United Methodist Church.
The outreach still makes its home in the former church building locals dub “the old yellow church.”
New Journey Community Outreach at 138 S. Sixth St. The soup kitchen, food pantry and clothes outreach is observing its 10th anniversary of its incorporation as a nonprofit. (BILL UHRICH – READING EAGLE)
New Journey provides basic critical necessities for those in need with three service areas, a food pantry, lunch program and clothing center, said Christie Botterbusch, executive director.
“We are an open door for anyone who needs help with those critical essentials,” she said. “We are here for them. We serve as a contact point for people who are often living on the margins, for people who find it difficult to get those critical necessities and who might be a little more disconnected from our larger society.”
Clients, called guests, are treated with dignity and respect, she said.
The lunch outreach is open to anyone, Botterbusch noted, no questions asked.
Registration is required for the federally funded food pantry program, provided in partnership with Helping Harvest Fresh Food Bank, Cumru Township.
The clothing distribution center is open to all. Appointments are recommended, but if there is a dire need, Botterbusch said, clothes can be provided immediately.
Anne Rutkowski, volunteer at the clothing center, sorts blouses at the New Journey Community Outreach at 138 S. Sixth St. (BILL UHRICH – READING EAGLE)
“I think that’s what makes us different,” she said. “We really are here to address immediate needs and emergency needs.”
If the outreach cannot help, guests are referred to another organization or an agency that can, Botterbusch said.
The South Sixth Street center also is a station for Tower Health Medical Group’s Street Medicine program.
The team visits on alternate Wednesdays and by appointment to provide primary and preventative care to the unhoused, shelter residents and anyone who is at high risk of experiencing homelessness.
New Journey is run by a small staff with the help of volunteers, many of whom began as guests, Botterbusch said.
‘A second chance’
Carrero started volunteering about three years ago after a health scare landed him in the hospital.
“God gave me a second chance,” he said. “And, you know, I took advantage of it. I came back here, and I’ve been here ever since.”
He typically helps prepare and distribute the eat-in or takeout bagged lunches and hot meals, served Monday through Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
He also assists as needed and as his work schedule allows.
“I like helping people,” he said.
Food program coordinator Jeff Laylon is among those Carrero credits for offering help and support when he most needed it.
“Jeff is a good friend of mine,” he said. “He always has my back.”
People are seen
Laylon, 66, of Wyomissing, has his own story of recovery. He has been clean for 15 years now, but he knows what it is like to suffer from substance-use disorder, homelessness and hunger.
He started volunteering about 10 years ago as a way of paying forward the compassion and help he was given and has been on New Journey’s staff for a little over two years.
Laylon is responsible for overseeing the preparation and distribution of more than 300 meals each weekday.
Feeding people is the heart of what New Journey does, he said, but it is more than that.
“We’re connecting with people and we’re giving people a place to feel totally welcome,” he said. “We like to say we have an extravagant welcome here, and that people can feel they are seen and validated.”
Michele Melendez, volunteer bilingual assistant, makes food appointments at the New Journey Community Outreach at 138 S. Sixth St. (BILL UHRICH – READING EAGLE)
10 years later
Like, Carrera and Laylon, volunteer Michele Melendez, 50, started as a guest of New Journey. But hers is a very different story.
Melendez and her two children moved to Reading several years ago to escape the crime and violence of their former Philadelphia neighborhood.
She found a job and a place to live, but the high rent meant there was no income left for food.
To put meals on the table, she turned to New Journey’s food pantry.
Melendez started volunteering a few years later when she was laid off, lost her home and found shelter at Opportunity House, 430 N. Second St.
“I was looking for something to do while I was out of work and living at the shelter,” she said. “So I started coming over here (New Journey), started meeting people, and I just started volunteering.”
It’s been 10 years now and she is still volunteering.
Melendez helps in whatever capacity is needed, often jumping in as the outreach’s impromptu Spanish-language translator.
“I got back on my feet, got my place,” she said, “and I stayed to volunteer here to give back to the community because they helped me.”
Gov. Mifflin High School students volunteer at the New Journey Community Outreach at 138 S. Sixth St. (BILL UHRICH – READING EAGLE)
Daily battle
Carrera also volunteers as a way of paying forward the help he was given, he said, but also as a way of staying focused.
He is working now, has been reunited with his children and is engaged to be married, but it has not always been easy.
“Addiction is a daily battle,” he said. “I still go to meetings, do what I have to do, and I stay focused. Coming here keeps me focused on doing what I have to do within myself. And I like to give, I like to help; it keeps me on the straight line.”