As the sun beat down on the Harrisburg community Wednesday, a line began to form shortly before 2 p.m. outside the Byllesby Center.
A group of adults, 60 and older, stood outside waiting to be the first beneficiaries of the center’s new senior food pantry.
“We have participated in the senior food box program with Golden Harvest Food Bank, and with the government cuts to the USDA, they have severe restrictions on that to the point where it wasn’t going to serve our needs anymore. So, we worked with Golden Harvest to figure out what would work best. What was offered up was this concept of a senior food pantry,” said the Rev. Larry Jesion, who along with his wife, Pam, operate the Byllesby Center, 1904 Greene St.
On Wednesday, the Jesions gathered for prayer and a ribbon cutting with volunteers and supporters before bringing in the people to pick out non-perishable pantry food items.
The monthly program joins a host of other activities at the center, which opened in February 2024.
The Rev. Jesion served as a deacon at Christ Episcopal Church, which is next to the Byllesby Center, more than a decade ago, When he was there, he thought it would be a perfect spot to do community outreach.
About six years ago the congregation died out, and Jesion became an Episcopal priest, moving to another church. Despite that, the vision remained, and in 2024, it was launched.
The couple didn’t know the scope of the ministry when they first started. The goal was to build a community, Pam Jesion said, but when Hurricane Helene hit on Sept. 28, 2024, the Jesions knew they were in the right place at the right time.
While much of the community was without power, the Byllesby Center was literally a beacon of light. The center miraculously had power.
Prior to Helene, volunteers prepared a weekly breakfast.
But during Helene, they started preparing daily meals. It wasn’t long before other churches without power began calling and offering the contents of their freezers and refrigerators.
They served more than 1,000 people in the first week after the storm as well as distributed water, blessing bags and toiletries.
“The hurricane really was what got us going,” said Pam Jesion. “I mean, we were doing small things, but that was jump in with both feet.”
The weekly breakfasts have grown from one on Saturday to hot breakfasts on Tuesday and Thursday and cold breakfasts on Wednesday and Friday; a community meal at lunch on Saturday; a regular food pantry on the third Thursday of the month in addition the new pantry for adults 60 and older on the fourth Wednesday.
A Girl Scout troop meets at the center and a group of people who make beads for hospitalized children. Senior bingo days are held regularly and there’s an afterschool homework help program. The building has also served as a cooling center.
The Byllesby Center is supported primarily by the convocation of Episcopal churches in the Augusta area, but other churches and community-based organizations also help.
Members of St. Teresa of Avila Catholic Church and Lewiston Memorial United Methodist Church also volunteer at the center.
To learn more, go to facebook.com/TheByllesbyCenter
Charmain Z. Brackett, the publisher of Augusta Good News and Inspiring: Women of Augusta, has covered Augusta’s news for more than 35 years. She’s won multiple Georgia Press Association awards, is the recipient of the 2018 Greater Augusta Arts Council’s media award and was named best local writer by readers of Augusta Magazine in 2024 and 2025. Reach her at charmain@augustagoodnews.com. Sign up for the newsletter here
