Submitted photos A special Thursday morning 'kindness team' of volunteers to help with the Heart and Hand House Barbour County Backpack program. Left to right is Miriam Rice, Elaine Benson, Rachel Caprio, and Kay Freeman.

A successful community service project needs only three ingredients – a beneficiary, donors, and an organization that can meld it all together into a sustainable project.

In the case of the Barbour County Backpack Program, the beneficiaries include over 500 food-insecure school children – children, if not for this program, would have the stark possibility of dealing with hunger over the weekends when school is not in session.

Numerous donors: Corporations, local businesses, churches, community organizations, anonymous donors, food banks and our Rotary E-Club, known officially as the Rotary E-Club of District 7545, however we like to use the name, Mountain State Rotary E-Club.

Add to this list the community-kindness teams: Dozens of service-oriented individuals putting volunteer hours of muscle into packaging, and you have a human resource powerhouse that readies over 500 packages of food essentials and snacks every Tuesday morning for Friday delivery to many of the elementary and middle schools in the county.

The organization heading the program: Heart and Hand House, Inc. of Philippi.

Elaine Benson and Kay Freeman stand ready to begin the morning.

Heart and Hand House, Inc. is a non-profit mission project affiliated with the United Methodist Church. Since the 1970s the organization’s mission is to minister to the physical, mental, spiritual and emotional needs of in-crisis, low-income people of Barbour County. As part of this mission, they have for years administered the Backpack program to several Barbour County public elementary and middle schools.

The Backpack Program is part of the national network, Feeding America, a non-profit that helps battle food insecurity in the United States. Backpack programs ensure children deemed food insecure have food for the weekends and for special break periods, during times when school is not in session when they do not receive their school lunches.

Our Rotary E-Club discovered the program in 2019 and began a sustainable relationship with Heart and Hand House, which we still value today. Each year our members support a fundraising campaign that brings in money to help support the program by purchasing food product, which we send to the Philippi organization once a month for six months throughout the school year. We use these funds to also participate in our Rotary District 7545 grant program.

Our fundraising source is one of the most important factors in this community service project: the Tucker Community Foundation and its annual “Run For It” event held the last weekend in September.

Founded over 35 years ago by a dedicated group of forward-looking and philanthropic-minded volunteers, the Tucker Community Foundation (TCF) has grown to be a formidable economic and community development organization.

Rachel Caprio organizes the shipment from the Mountain State Rotary E-Club, having just arrived the day before.

In 2025, this dynamic organization awarded 66 grants totaling $170,612 and 79 school scholarships totaling $133,300 to non-profit organizations and students within its ten-county service region including Barbour, Grant, Mineral, Pendleton, Pocahontas, Preston, Randolph, Tucker, and Upshur counties in West Virginia and Garrett County, Maryland.

Since its inception in 2007, the annual event, “Run For It” has grown exponentially. The initiative has collectively raised over $3.6 million. In 2025, the event drew over 1,300 participants and raised $340,000, benefiting 79 non-profit organizations and groups in the Foundation’s ten-county area.

“Run For It” kicks off each year on April 1. Teams may join anytime up to the August deadline. The TCF challenges participants to form teams to support the community cause of their choice during a six-month campaign. Cash awards are given to the teams raising the most awareness and support for their charity, along with demonstrating the best effort. Additionally, half of the entry fees, 100 percent of team sponsor donations, and 100 percent of race day awards are distributed to the cause represented.

To offset the 2020 pandemic and its affect on so many outdoor group activities, the TCF created a virtual “Run For It”. Virtual participation is perfect for clubs like ours where membership is widespread, or where the groups of people who are unable to complete the physical event on a mountaintop still have the right to participate at their own pace and space.

Since the pandemic, and since our club is online oriented, we opted for a hybrid version: some walk virtually, some traverse the mountain village to take in the fellowship of the Leaf Peeper Festival. In the seven years our Rotary E-club has participated in this fundraiser for Heart and Hand House, we have raised over $25,000 to help feed kids in Barbour County. Of this amount raised, our Rotary International District 7545 granted us $6,500.00 throughout the seven year period, which has been very much appreciated.

From left to right, Kay Freeman, Elaine Benson and Miriam Rice busy at work. Miriam’s job is counting the bags and then passes them to the other two on the assembly line.

I stopped on a special Thursday morning get-together to meet some of the “kindness team” – volunteers putting the Backpack packages together for the week and spoke with Rachel Caprio, Emergency Services Coordinator. The organization had just received our May shipment of food product and I wanted to record the success of our combined efforts. According to Caprio, the total number of food insecure children in the public school system increases yearly.

“Numbers for the 2024-25 school year ranged around 420 students”, she said. “In 2025-2026, over 500 children were in need of weekend meals, and in 2026-2027 we are preparing for an increase to 600.”

Elaine Benson, a Heart and Hand House Board member volunteering that morning, noted the Backpack program had been one of Heart and Hand’s most costly projects this past 2025-2026 year. Caprio added to the conversation. “The organization spent nearly $100,000 for the Backpack program alone this past school year. We look for that amount to increase next year given the increase in student need.”

As packing continued through the morning it was nice to feel the kindness in the room. Each volunteer played an important part in a well-organized assembly line. Community members that morning also included Miriam Rice and Kay Freeman.

Heart and Hand House’s new Executive Director, Carrie Moats, stopped in to meet me and thank our Mountain State Rotary E-Club for its continued and much needed support. Benson added to the enthusiasm of the morning: “We look forward to your monthly shipments. They always seem to arrive just in time,” she exclaimed.

Rachel Caprio, Emergency Services Coordinator, and Carrie Moats, Executive Director of Heart and Hand House, Inc. enjoy their new office space at 48 Mason Street in Philippi. Offices are located on the ground floor of the Philippi United Methodist Church.

Our current club president, Jeffrey Tinnell takes care of all ordering and shipment. As Service Project coordinator and Public Image chair, I take care of the rest. Of course, there’s always a Special Thanks to all our club members, friends of Rotary, and many others who make the fundraiser a success every year.

As we look forward to the upcoming 2026-27 Rotary year, we are organizing another year of fundraising to help hungry kids eat well in Barbour County. If you are interested in joining us and our Run For It “Running for Rotary” team for the 2026 event, contact the Mountain State Rotary E-Club at mtn.state.rotary.eclub@gmail.com or call Bonnie Branciaroli at 304-642-2351.

If you or your business would like to visit Heart and Hand House to meet the current Executive Director, just call Carrie Moats at 304-457-1295. The new office facilities are now at 48 Main Street, Philippi, WVa, located on the ground floor of the Philippi United Methodist Church. Let Rachel Caprio know if you want to become part of the team that meets regularly every Tuesday morning during Backpack season.