Our Community Place is the amazing story of a community centered grass roots project and a long time vision that has finally become a reality.

Our Community Place seeks . .

• To accommodate, foster and provide activities and programs related to personal growth and community well being.
• To be a resource in the community for individuals seeking information or services already provided by other organizations.
• To educate and empower individuals toward self-sufficiency, thus creating social capital for the community at large.
• To nurture a community that appreciates diversity and sees differences and conflict as opportunities for spiritual growth.

 

 

Our vision is to build, around our free noon meal, an atmosphere of love, safety, education, spiritual awareness, healing, and fun.  We want to create a community center that functions on the same principles as our Soup Kitchen: anyone in the world is welcome to help or participate.

We are dedicated to breaking down barriers that tend to separate humans from the joys to be experienced in loving community. We are particularly dedicated to including in our activities those struggling with poverty and difficult life circumstances.  We have found over the years that incredible healing potential, for all parties, exists in the simple act of sitting down and eating or socializing together across social barriers.

A Little History

Free Food For All Soup Kitchen

In June of 1992, Ron Copeland bought the Little Grill Restaurant in Harrisonburg, VA. By October of that year, he had started closing the restaurant on Mondays and offering a free noon meal to “anyone in the world.” From the beginning, Ron’s vision for the Soup Kitchen was that it would be a cooperative community meal rather than specifically a charitable meal, everyone would be welcome, all work would be volunteer, and meals would be served “family style.” He placed a container on the front counter of the restaurant marked “Soup Kitchen” and the patrons of the Little Grill responded with wild generosity.

In a few short years, the Soup Kitchen had become a phenomenon in its own right, a truly free meal, with no strings attached, which served a wide variety of people, and maintained a joyous and mutually respectful atmosphere. The Soup Kitchen began to maintain a bank balance well above what was required to produce a weekly meal, and Copeland and other regular volunteers started eying up an old Salvation Army building that lay dormant on a ¾ acre lot across the street from the restaurant, as a potential new home for the Soup Kitchen. After a little while, the vision went beyond simply a new home for the Soup Kitchen, and began to take shape as a community center.

The Soup Kitchen remained at the Little Grill during the development of the OCP project, even after Ron sold the restaurant to the Little Grill Cooperative.

Our Community Place

When we started the Our Community Place project, we knew that it was a huge – seemingly impossible task. The idea of a small group of people with full time jobs, no income besides donations, no skilled laborers in the group, and no paid staff renovating a building that had asbestos floor tiles, old cracked windows, a leaky roof, no plumbing, no electricity and defunct heating system seemed absurd.

Chronology

1998: A vision began to emerge of a community center that would expand on the Soup Kitchen concept: an educational, community-building, self-improvement oriented, community center with Soup Kitchen philosophy at its heart and soul – “Anyone in the World is welcome!” – as Ron Copeland said in one early OCP Journal article “a whole new vision of church and school.”

1999 - 2000:  OCP incorporated and became a 501(c)(3) organization – allowing individuals to make tax-deductible donations to the effort.

Two years of intensive “Fun”- Raising (yard sales, spaghetti dinners, variety shows, newsletters, music festivals, raffles, etc.) produced enough money to give us the confidence on January 1st 2001 to purchase the building placing $7,000 down – owing the balance of $58,000 on January 1st 2002.

2001: OCP used “Community Financing” (a financing method in which $1000 loans are taken from individuals in the community in order to finance a project in lieu of going to the bank) and the wild generosity of many people in the community to pay for the building in cash. Asbestos was removed, we installed new windows, paid for a new roof, and got water and sewer hooked up from the street to the building.

2002:  In exchange for using the OCP lawn to park heavy equipment, a company that was doing work on a bridge adjacent to the property, ran all new sewer lines from the street to the building, created a sand volleyball court, and poured a concrete pad for a basketball court. 

An ideological split rocked the board, causing soul searching, confusion, and bad feelings. Some board members, who eventually left the board, were suspicious of Ron’s leadership style and resented his expressions of Christian faith that were becoming more and more apparent through the newsletter. Some in this group also believed that leadership should be shared by any and every person and toward that end that the board should be dissolved.  Copeland and others believed that the board was important and wanted to uphold the bylaws of the organization.  Ultimately, the dissenting minority quit the board.

2003: Once the dust settled from the board split, the remaining board members, plus new additions, devoted most of 2003 to developing a “Comprehensive Plan” for building renovation and kitchen installation that culminated in a set of professionally engineered floor plans, and plumbing schematics.

Meanwhile across the street, Ron Copeland and some of his employees turned the Little Grill into a worker-owned cooperative, and Ron, with new-found freedom, entered Eastern Mennonite Seminary, thus diverting some of his leadership energy from the OCP project.

At this point, after 10 issues, the OCP newsletter became defunct.

2004:  Volunteers demolished interior cinder block walls, cut the concrete floor, dug trenches for the interior plumbing and removed the considerable debris.

2005: The interior plumbing was completed and the concrete floor was re-poured.

2006: The last of the Community Financing debts were paid off, after which the building was completely paid for!

Volunteers from Community Mennonite Church paid for and framed new walls and increased the size of our little community garden using much of the produce for Soup Kitchen.

Ron Copeland graduated from Seminary and announced that he will be starting a new Mennonite congregation, The Early Church, which will use the OCP building for public services once the building is complete. Although Ron remains central in both OCP and the Early Church, the two will remain organizationally separate.

For the first time ever, OCP decided to give a $200/mo. stipend to Ron as he began to devote the bulk of his working time to OCP. Most of the rest of Ron’s personal expenses began to be covered by private donors interested in the completion of the OCP and/or the creation of the Early Church project. This account was/is handled through the Virginia Mennonite Board of Missions.

2007: The electricity project was started in earnest by a saint-like volunteer who, when he wasn't working his full-time job, designed, directed, and did most of the labor to completely rewire the nearly 3,000 square foot building.

The walls were dry-walled and painted. The ceiling was insulated. The handicap ramp was completed. 

2008:  A man walked into the building one day and donated $20,000 (followed by another 5K a few months later) which gave the board the confidence to go ahead and pay for the labor for some last big items and get the occupancy permit.

Ron Copeland began being paid $1600 per month as Director.

"everyday bikes," a non-profit bike shop sponsored by Anabaptist faith-based non-profit New Community Project, made arrangements to open their shop on OCP grounds.

Administrative Assistant Mike Farrand, became the second ever OCP employee, being paid a small monthly salary.

The electricity was completed on Valentine's Day.  The bathrooms were finished and beautifully tiled and usable (yay!)  Lighting was finished, drop ceilings were hung, the commercial kitchen hood was completed, and the kitchen was tiled.  A small room in the back part of the building was enlarged to twice its capacity in order to better accommodate 12-step meetings, informal counseling sessions, daily prayers, meditation, etc.  

On Monday August 18, OCP received its Certificate of Occupancy from Harrisonburg city and held the very first Soup Kitchen in the building on the very same day! 

After 7 1/2 years of work, OCP was open and legal. 

We own the property outright and we have no debt!

We did it!

In the context of our society of instant gratification the OCP project may have seemed to have taken a long time, but from our perspective, it has been an amazing process which has grounded itself deeper and deeper into the community.

The generosity and faith of this community has been so beautiful over the years. Thanks again for your support. As the years pass, you will have the pleasure of seeing your investment in community pay off. And of course you will always be welcome at Soup Kitchen and the OCP at any time – you and anyone else with a belly button.

Our vision is that once the building is bustling with activity, the organization will be more and more self-sustaining. The Soup Kitchen vision since the beginning has been that we do not exist only to serve the economically poor, but that we exist to be of service to all humanity.  One of the magical aspects of our Soup Kitchen, as anyone can attest who has eaten there, is that we all eat together, and we serve the food family style – no one waits in a soup line.

One of our long-term goals is to work toward overcoming unhealthy states of mind with regard to class differences, so that people from all walks of life can learn to eat, play and learn from each other, together. In this system, people who wish to contribute money for food, classes, etc. will be encouraged to do so and people who cannot afford to spend any money will be welcome to join in activities without any stigma.

 

Below is a list of activities that already exist at OCP:

• Monday Free Food For All Soup Kitchen
  
• Small casual sporadic daily meals (no regular schedule yet)
  
• Birth Matters Educational series
• Vegetable Gardening
• "everyday bikes" bike shop 
  
• Daily Prayers
• Wednesday night Bible study
  
• Narcotics Anonymous meetings
  
• Thursday night "prayer house style" prayers in back room
• Our Community Works! planning
  
• OCP Newsletter planning
  
• Networking to Other Community Services
• Summer Lawn Jam - last Sat. in June
• Shenandoah Valley Bike Fest - last Sat. in July
• Holiday Craft Nights (6 weeks before Christmas)

 

Below is a list of activities, organizations and services that may be found at OCP as we continue to grow organically:

• Regualr Pot Lucks
• The Early Church Project
• Skyline Literacy Coalition sub station
  
• Home School Groups
• Other 12-Step Groups (Alcoholics Anonymous, Over-Eaters Anonymous, etc.)
  
• Regular Craft Nights
• Coffee Houses
• Lecture Series
• OCP Newsletter
• Our Community Plays!
• Free Speech Days / Public Debates
• Yoga Classes
• Music and Food Festivals
• Conflict Mediation Training
• Horse Shoe Tournaments
• Black’s Run Restoration Awareness
• Recycling Education
• YOUR IDEAS!

Who is making decisions?

OCP is managed by a self-perpetuating Board of Directors.  We want to start quarterly informational potlucks soon so that the board can keep the public informed about all matters of importance. 

Donations

Your donations are always appreciated.  The building is paid for and we have no debt, but we could still use regular support for the confidence to hire a small staff (financial/grant writing, secretary, assistant to the director, etc.), and take chances on new projects like Our Community Works! that will give people meaningful work and housing. 

If you would like information about donating money click here. Our Community Place is a non-profit 501(c)(3) tax-deductible organization.

For media reports click here.