Huron Ministerial to hold soup supper

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Offering food to the hungry and help to those in need is a key focus of the Huron Ministerial Association, says the group’s president, Pastor Jean Mornard of Grace Episcopal Church.

One of the Ministerial Association’s main fundraisers, its annual Soup Supper, helps replenish funds used to assist those in the community. This year’s Soup Supper will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Sunday at the Salvation Army, 237 Illinois Ave. S.W.

For the past five years the Association has organized monthly food giveaways with Feeding South Dakota, which serve up to 200 local households. They also received funds to help provide financial assistance for things such as utilities and rent.

“The funds that we raise go to our Help Fund,” said Mornard, who is known as Mother Jean in her parish. “That was the original financial activity of the Association — to help transients and people passing through with lodging, transportation or gas or food.

“That still exists, but it’s a secondary activity,” she said. “There aren’t a lot of people passing through Huron. A few years back we decided to open that fund to helping people with utilities and rent.”

When COVID hit, a group of Huron residents (spearheaded by Rhonda Kludt) raised $50,000 that was specifically to help pay rent for people who had lost their jobs due to COVID.

Mornard said that about a year into that project, they discovered that people weren’t coming to them with COVID-related rent issues. “They made the decision to let the Ministerial Association administer the rest of the money, about $35,000, for rent assistance for any reason, not just COVID-related,” Mornard said. “That’s a big thing we do. We were the first thought for them to transfer that money, mainly because of Roger Puthoff, our treasurer, who has established a reputation for careful record keeping and carefully administering whatever funds we have.”

Puthoff, who is an ordained deacon at Holy Trinity, is chairman of the Soup Supper.

Since the pandemic, Mornard said the initial need for that kind of rental assistance has eased.

“Right now we’re holding our own,” Mornard said. “We would like to be able to help anybody who asks whenever they ask, but then the money is all gone. That’s a well with no bottom. We try to be cautious stewards.”

Participation in the monthly food giveaways through Feeding South Dakota is growing as higher grocery prices make an impact on budgets already stretched thin, she said.

“That’s a big deal, it’s all volunteers,” Mornard said of those who help box and distribute the food. “We’ve partnered with People’s Transit. We’re using their garage, which has really been nice on these really cold days. That’s a wonderful partnership. There’s a lot of people who come every month to help and are dedicated to this service we are providing.

“It’s gratifying, it’s so nice to help people — especially in the area of groceries,” she said.

Mornard and her husband, Michael, moved to Huron almost 11 years ago when she began her first assignment as a priest. Her earlier career was as an opera singer.

“I was literally looking at the end of my career; opera singers have a shelf life,” Mornard added. “It panicked me. I couldn’t think about not being a musician, not singing.

“Then one day I woke up, sat up in bed, and had this crazy thought that I was being called as an Episcopal priest. That sense of calling never left.”

Mornard said the Ministerial Association wants people to know that there are people in town looking out for those who are less fortunate and trying to do what they can to help.

“We’re following in the footsteps of Jesus,” she said. “He would feed the poor and help people who are in need. That’s kind of who we are as a Ministerial Association. It’s pretty gratifying to see the tangible results of stuff that we preach and talk about.”