Six months after the closing of Holy Rosary-St. John Church next door, the St. John Center (also known as the St. John Community Center) on Columbus’ south side continues to thrive as a community hub for many activities.
The former St. John School at 640 S. Ohio Ave. is the site of the Community Kitchen, serving free hot meals five days a week; a food pantry that is open every Thursday and provides three days’ worth of food to low-income residents from anywhere in Franklin County; the St. John Learning Center, offering classes for people preparing for the GED high-school equivalency diploma test, plus other adult education programs; and the Order of Malta Center of Care, providing free medical care and referrals once a week and free dental care twice a month at no charge to anyone who visits.
The final Mass at Holy Rosary-St. John Church was celebrated on Sunday, May 12 and the building officially closed as a worship site on June 30, when a decree issued by Bishop Earl Fernandes at the beginning of the year went into effect.
The church’s worship community was merged with that of nearby Columbus St. Dominic Church, with the combined parish given responsibility for caring for the closed church, the St. John Center and other properties on the Holy Rosary-St. John campus.
“It doesn’t appear that there’s been any noticeable drop-off in the number of people using the center; in fact, I’d say things are continuing to go very well there,” said Gary Rhoades, who oversees maintenance for the combined parish. “We had a resource fair at the center and about 270 people showed up, so there’s obviously still great interest.
“I put together a five-year buildings plan for the two churches last year and that remains in effect. Roof leaks at the center were fixed, we have a couple of grant applications awaiting approval and we’re continuing a fundraising drive.”
“A lot of people thought at first that since the church was closing, the center would be closing, too,” said MJ McCleskey, president and chief executive officer of Community Kitchen, Inc. “The number of people coming for meals went down for a while and donations dropped off, but people have started to realize we’re still here and we need more people to know that we’re not going anywhere. We continue to look for volunteers and we’re still taking donations.”
McCleskey, who has been involved with the program for 15 years, said the kitchen is on track to serve about 150,000 meals again this year. It’s open for sit-down dining on weekdays from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. for breakfast and 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. for lunch. Last year, it served about 150,000 meals on-site. It also delivers meals to the Westside Christian School, the Fresh Market on Parsons Avenue and the Nehemiah House on East Main Street. McCleskey said about 2,000 meals were delivered in October.
“Delivery was something we started as a result of COVID, which taught us to be more flexible,” she said. “We also started doing more takeout meals for people to bring home or to their jobs. We used to have many people come for breakfast, then stay for lunch. There’s less of that now and more in-and-out.”
The program began as a parish ministry in 1979 and since 1985 has been a federal 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization independent of the church, with a board of directors representing the community.
It shares space in the former school’s basement with the St. John Food Pantry, which remains a program of the parish. The pantry has been open since the 1980s and serves about 70 families or individuals each Thursday from 9 to 10:30 a.m., said volunteer coordinator Rose Moses. In 2023, the pantry provided more than 74,000 meals to nearly 8,300 people.
“We’ve given out about 3,000 food packages since the first of the year and it’s been pretty steady all year,” she said. “If anything, I think there’s been a few more people coming this year than last. The need is still there, people know we’re here and they’ve gotten over any concerns related to the church’s having closed. Most people coming here are not Catholic, so the status of the church didn’t make a difference to them.”
She said everyone the pantry serves receives one bag of nonperishable foods such as cereal, macaroni and cheese, spaghetti, rice and canned foods, plus one or two bags of nonperishables including bread, milk, eggs, yogurt and fresh fruits, vegetables and meat.
Moses, who has been volunteering at the pantry for more than 20 years, said most of the perishables are from the Mid-Ohio Food Collective, with canned goods and other items coming from Columbus St. Peter and St. Catharine, Powell St. Joan of Arc, Pickerington St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and Dublin St. Brigid of Kildare parishes, the Knights of St. Peter Claver auxiliary, the River House apartments and other organizations and individuals.
During the Christmas season, the pantry distributes hats, gloves and blankets it receives from the knitting ministry at Gahanna St. Matthew Church.
Moses is assisted by eight to 10 regular adult volunteers, plus high school students who come to the pantry to earn volunteer service hour credits. She said most of the volunteers come from St. Dominic, Columbus Christ the King and the parishes that provide most of the food donations. The pantry’s major expenses are for office supplies and bags. Most of those who come to the site are from the neighborhood near the center, but Moses regularly has clients from the far eastern and far western ends of Franklin County as well.
The Columbus region of the Order of Malta has operated its Center of Care at the St. John Center since the summer of 2017. The center is open Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and offers health screenings and basic medical, wound, burn, dental and foot care from volunteer physicians, podiatrists and dentists from the Catholic Medical Association, along with medical referrals for those needing advanced levels of care. It does not bill insurance or Medicare but operates solely on donations.
It also provides packages of hygiene supplies, undergarments, socks, T-shirts, gloves and hats to anyone who wants them.
Jason Thomas, president of the center’s board, said that about 300 people have received medical care and 70 have obtained dental care this year through mid-November, with more than 2,200 care packages being distributed. The center has received and distributed 192 winter coasts each year for the past three years. Some are available this year, but he anticipates they’ll be gone before too long.
“We’ve been serving about the same number of people each year since reopening on a full-time basis in 2022 once COVID came under control,” he said. “Before COVID caused so much disruption in 2020, we were seeing about 500 annually. Most come through word of mouth.”
Teresa Lee, who has been the St. John Learning Center’s coordinator since 2022, said it has been offering GED classes since the 1980s, doing it in the past year or so in a partnership with Columbus City Schools and the Ohio Department of Higher Education’s Aspire program for adult learners. The classes are offered quarterly. The next set of classes will begin on Wednesday, Jan. 6, with registration starting in early December.
Students in the classes take a placement test that positions them in one of two levels of study. The first level gives students enough general knowledge to go to the second level, which gets them ready to take the GED test. New classes start approximately every three months, but there’s no set term for when classes end for each student. That depends on the time it takes for an individual to complete each level.
The St. John Learning Center, which is still a parish-run program, also offers quarterly classes in English for Speakers of Other Languages, in cooperation with the Columbus Literacy Council. The winter session for those classes begins in February with registration in January.
Throughout the year, the center presents a Zoom workshop series on mental health issues titled “Stop the Stigma,” with licensed counselors speaking on a different subject from noon to 1 p.m., usually on the third Thursday of each month. The next workshop will be on “Dealing with Grief During the Holidays” and will be from noon to 1 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 12.
Lee said the success of the resource fair in October has led to plans for another such event in 2025, with a job fair planned for a date in the spring to be determined. Also on tap for next year are multiple-session programs on home buying, financial literacy and starting a business, which the center has hosted in the past.
The small business workshops attract people hoping to start a small business and others trying to improve their current businesses. The goal of the St. John Learning Center, whether through GED classes or through these small business classes, is to help individuals and families become self-sufficient and thrive financially.
Besides offering classes, the center has a computer lab with six stations for students. It is looking for donations of up-to-date computers.
To learn more about the center and check its schedule of events, go to stjohnlearning.wordpress.com or call (614) 547-2171.
The St. John Community Center also is continuing an annual school supply program in cooperation with Westerville St. Paul the Apostle Church and sponsors a Christmas gift program in collaboration with Sunbury St. John Neumann Church, said Violet Jackson, coordinator for both.
“St. Paul parishioners are very generous year after year in providing back-to-school items for students who can’t afford them,” she said. “This year, we were able to give backpacks filled with about six months’ worth of items such as notebooks, pens, pencils, crayons, paper towels and wipes and so forth to about 150 students. They are designed for the needs of various grades, with high school students even getting calculators.
“The program in collaboration with St. John Neumann puts together forms with gift requests for about 30 families and distributes the forms to families in both the parish and the surrounding neighborhood in November, and there’s always a great response.
“When the changes at Holy Rosary-St. John were announced, we didn’t know if that would affect these programs, but both parishes were adamant that they wanted to keep them in the community.”
The Christmas gift program co-sponsored by St. John Neumann is already full, but the Community Kitchen also offers Christmas gifts in collaboration with St. Paul the Apostle Church. Those attending that program can pick up gifts after getting a free lunch as well.
St. Dominic Church, at 453 N. 20th St., has a parish center where home-cooked meals have been served since July 2023. The meal program is known as Cecil’s Café in honor of longtime parish employee Cecil Douglas and serves breakfast from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. and lunch from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
“It’s only open three days because we’re out shopping on Tuesdays and Thursdays,” said Sheila Jones, a volunteer who does the cooking with her aunt, Bunny Neal, and assistance from other volunteers. “We have between 125 and 175 people at lunch and they’re happy to come see us because they know what they get is cooked with love and isn’t something from out of a can. We don’t want anyone to come here expecting something ordinary.”
The Community Kitchen served meals at St. Dominic’s for several years but ended that program in the summer of 2023, with Jones and Neal stepping up to take its place. “We paid for everything in the first six months, but then the Catholic Foundation stepped in with a grant. We’re also getting help from parishes and still paying for some of the food ourselves. In addition, we have a friend who wishes to remain anonymous from Westerville St. Paul who visits bakeries and brings us their leftover bread each day.”
The parish also sponsors the distribution of Thanksgiving food baskets to more than 400 families and is involved with a Christmas gift partnership for children served by the St. Vincent Family Center.
Effective this Sunday, Dec. 1, the church’s Sunday Mass will be 9:45 a.m., with a weekday Mass at noon on Wednesdays. There also is a Mass for former residents of Cameroon at 1 p.m. on the third Sunday of the month.
Parish council president Angela Hickman said St. Dominic’s social justice ministry has been involved for decades with Building Responsibility, Equality and Dignity (BREAD), a Columbus-based coalition of more than 40 churches of all denominations that addresses community problems by holding public officials accountable to implementing proven solutions.
Issues being addressed by BREAD include affordable housing, renter protection, gun violence, environmental justice and juvenile justice.
Besides St. Dominic’s, other Columbus parishes that are part of the group are Christ the King/St. Thomas the Apostle, St. Christopher, St. Josephine Bakhita, Immaculate Conception, St. Francis of Assisi and the St. Thomas More Newman Center, as well as the Dominican Sisters of Peace.
“I’ve been pastor here for only three months, so I’m still getting used to the parish, but I’m impressed by what a vibrant community it is and how Masses at St. Dominic’s are a real celebration,” said Father Antony Varghese, CFIC, a member of the Sons of the Immaculate Conception religious order. He also is pastor of St. Francis of Assisi Church.
“The many social programs at the St. John Center make it a unique parish. People at Holy Rosary-St. John and St. Dominic are doing well in getting used to each other. Those with long memories recall that it’s not the first merger involving these parishes. Holy Rosary-St. John resulted from a combining of parishes in the 1960s, and the former St. Cyprian Church merged with St. Dominic’s in the 1950s, so St. Dominic’s as it now exits is really a combination of four parishes.”
The newly merged parish needs outside donations to support this faithful work at both the St. John Community Center and St. Dominic Church. Donations from individuals around the diocese in addition to the contributions from St. Dominic parishioners are important to keeping all these much-needed programs operational.
To donate by check, send a check made out to “St. Dominic Catholic Church” to the church at P. O. Box 83572, Columbus, OH 43203-0572. If possible, put “year-end appeal” on the memo line.
If you would like to know more about donating or have questions about any of the parish programs, including the St. John Food Pantry, St. John Learning Center, and Cecil’s Café, call (614) 252-5926, extension 207. For information on Community Kitchen, Inc., call (614) 252-6428. For information on the Order of Malta Center of Care, call (614) 530-8643.