is a 501(c)3 nonprofit assisting Rutherford County, NC residents in crisis (utilities, rent, medications, food & clothing by appointment. The Reverend Jerry Murray, pastor of the First United Methodist Church, Forest City and Jewell Blanton Hill, a church member, organized Rutherford County’s local Yokefellow Service Center in April 1967. Being moved by the vast needs of the disadvantaged in Ruthe
rford County, Rev. Hill visited the National Headquarters of Yokefellow in Indiana. There they were inspired to join the national organization. The local Yokefellow Service Center was incorporated in December 1968. After several years, the Board of Directors and Council Members made the decision to withdraw from the national organization and utilize the funds spent for dues on food for low-income county residents. Yokefellow was initially conceived by Christians (working across denominational and racial boundaries) to develop opportunities for the disadvantaged by identifying and meeting social service needs at a time when there was a lack of such agencies in the county. The operation was staffed totally by volunteers and provided food and clothing to the needy; funded by the donations of concerned churches and individuals
Yokefellow initiated a variety of pilot programs as well as supplemented and expanded existing programs. Achievements over the years include: a chaplaincy program at Rutherford hospital, telephone and visitation programs for shut-ins and elderly, school tutoring programs, financial counseling programs, pastoral counseling programs, provided money and transportation to summer camp programs for underprivileged children, Christmas Cheer in association with Salvation Army, Prison Ministry and Broughton Days. The sponsorship and responsibility for some of these programs have been turned over to other organizations and agencies. These programs are still thriving. Yokefellow still coordinates (through churches) the Prison Ministry; which provides a program to the inmates at the Spindale Correctional Unit on Tuesday evenings, and Broughton Days; where Broughton Hospital patients are invited, on a monthly basis, to individual churches for a program and a meal. In addition, Yokefellow piloted a new program in 2007. Building Foundations, a mental health counseling program was a timely response to the privatization of North Carolina’s Mental Health System.
