By Ann Marie Byrd, Feature Writer
The Celebration
Religious Community Services is celebrating their 40th birthday providing critical services for homelessness prevention and food insecurity in the Five Points community!
On August 13, from 4:00pm – 9:00pm RCS will be hosting a Birthday Block Party at 919 George Street. The event will feature appearances from The First Capital Chapter of the AACA Antique Car Club from New Bern and Morehead City, the Twin Rivers Corvette Club, a giant kid zone, live entertainment by Alex Williams from Kool and the Gang, performances by the Marine Corps Band and concessions. There will also be games, face painting and street performers—and Tap That has even mixed up a special brew for the occasion!
“RCS has served the community with generosity, creativity and a whole lot of praying,” says Executive Director Zeb Hough. “Our goal is to raise $50,000 dollars to seed our endowment. We want to make this happen through great local sponsorships and creative business partners in town, in order to create sustainable funding, grow our services and impact our community.”
The History and Mission
RCS first began, as the story goes, with Sister Angela Mary Parker serving soup out her station wagon in the Five Points community back in 1982. That spark led to the creation of RCS with the support of Christ Episcopal Church, Dr. William Hunt, and many other individuals who shaped the vision of what the organization has become today.
“Our mission is to meet need where it’s felt the most. First, we are concerned with homelessness prevention and care: we are the only homeless shelter in three counties. We also work in conjunction with domestic violence victims with Coastal Women’s Shelter, with Promise Place for sexual violence survivors and the newly developing My Sister’s House,” says Zeb. “We started with six beds in the basement of the Presbyterian church and we now offer ten beds for men and ten for women. We provide residential services for three months to one and a half years and transportation assistance to get to work.”
The other arm of the organization addresses food insecurity. The community kitchen feeds between 80 -100 people a day, and functions as an emergency pantry; grocery stores partner with the food bank to provide shelf stable foods, produce and a bread line that runs daily. “Due to barriers with transportation to get to the food bank, RCS launched Operation Outpost in March 2021. We take all of our services on the road and partner with other communities in Bridgeton, Havelock and Harlow. Since March 2022, five-thousand-five-hundred families have been served by Operation Outpost,” says Zeb.
RCS has a staff of eighteen, and alongside their work, the organization also has a massive team of volunteers: in 2021 their time added up to a stunning 207,000 hours of community volunteer service. Furthermore, RCS is almost exclusively funded by the community with no federal or state monies, with all financial obligations paid by private foundation and local donations, equating to approximately $1.7 million in private funds income; however, manpower resources and services equate to around $13 million annually.
Leadership
Executive Director Zeb Hough grew up in Buffalo, New York with nine sisters, a white mother and black father, and a total disbelief in Santa Claus, because the only Christmas presents he ever received were brought to him from the local fire department. “Being mixed-race, I never felt that I fit in, and I didn’t have what others had. But I was born with a nurturing spirit and optimism,” says Zeb.
After losing his mother to a heart attack at the tender ago of 15, he was angry at the world. He went to live with his father, but they butted heads, and he ended up landing in a shelter in Buffalo, New York for nine months. “When I was homeless in the shelter I felt like a zoo animal: watched, monitored, not a whole human being. Afterward, I went to Alfred College to study ornamental horticulture, but became interested in human services, then social work and religious studies. I now have a Master’s Degree in Theology. I am most interested in how to put the human element back into social services, with dignity and hope for the human spirit. People are ready to be loved and accepted for who they are,” says Zeb.
Zeb is an ordained pastor, and embraces non-governmental sponsored social work as his life mission. He is blessed with a lovely wife, Summer, and his two children.
The Covert Connection
“Our covert mission is to connect people to support one another in fighting poverty. There is a misconception that RCS serves the have nots with the help of the haves, but the truth is RCS is a bridge that links the have nots with the have nots,” says Zeb. “For example, two women met in our recently opened clothing boutique, which is filled with donated clothing. People purchase a bag for $2.00 and they can fill that bag with thrift store treasures. We had a line out the door from the first day we opened. Miss Millie, who is an upper-middle class grandma, loves second-hand shops. Miss Ruth is a neighbor; she had shoes with holes in them. She couldn’t afford the $2.00, so she received a voucher, and got new shoes. While she was there, she met Miss Millie and they talked about their grandchildren. Now, they meet every Wednesday and they shop together. They are helping each other and they found friendship.”
That’s the kind of supportive community that RSC fulfills, providing a common place that belongs to the community. The goal is to engage people holistically, not just for their basic critical needs, but by recognizing what they bring to the table as human beings—because we all bring something of value.