SOUTH POINT — It’s a name synonymous with mission work in this country.

For a half-century Father Ralph Beiting and his Appalachian Mission Center have reached out to the poor in the hills of eastern Kentucky, West Virginia and southern Ohio.

Now, Lawrence County will be the site for the center’s annual Christmas distribution of food for the needy when Beiting and center volunteers spend Saturday giving out a quarter-million pounds of food to agencies focused on helping needy families in Appalachia, all through the intervention of Father Charles Moran, pastor of St. Ann’s Catholic Church in Chesapeake.

Eight semi trailers will be stationed at General Refrigeration in South Point with at least 60 agencies ready to receive canned goods, chickens, turkeys, hams, Italian foods and fresh produce and fruits, according to Larry Britt, of the Louisa-based center. Suppliers will include Nestle’s, Kahns, Brown’s Food Service, Mt. Vision, Castellini’s, Versts and Bernardi’s.

Usually the food is distributed out of a warehouse the center rents in Louisa. However, that option wasn’t available this year and the more than 48,000 square-foot warehouse being built there isn’t completed yet.

That’s when Moran stepped in. The two priests met a few years ago in Ashland, Ky., and when Moran heard about the situation, he made arrangements with General Refrigeration to allow the distribution to be there.

Depending on the scope of their work, each non-profit anticipates helping from 50 to 1,000 families in three states. Areas to benefit are Lawrence and Scioto counties in Ohio; Floyd, Johnson, Lawrence, Elliott, Magoffin, Carter, Boyd, and Laurel counties in Kentucky; and Cabell, Wayne and Mingo counties in West Virginia, according to Debbie Meade of the center. All told, an estimated 13,000 families will benefit from the giveaway.

Agencies applied in the fall asking for help from Beiting’s mission and have been assigned a time for their distribution this weekend. There will be no giveaways to individuals on Saturday.

The 15-church member Community Mission Organization in Chesapeake will be the local agency receiving food. This will be added to the food collected by the churches along with donations from schools and businesses or bought with the proceeds from this year’s ecumenical community Thanksgiving service.

Next Saturday at least 550 food baskets will be distributed to Lawrence County families from the CMO’s headquarters at the Chesapeake Community Center.

“All of us are in this together,” Moran said. “The Lord didn’t come to anyone special, but to all of us. … We need to make sure everyone is able to come to the table.”

On Jan. 1, Beiting will celebrate his 85th birthday and in 2010 his 60th year as a priest. The Covington, Ky., native reached out early in his priesthood to the poor, buying land in Garrard County to start a summer camp for boys in 1957. That grew into the current ministry that was incorporated in 1964.

“Christ never rested,” Beiting said in a phone interview with The Tribune. “I want to be his defender today. He is being pushed out of Christmas, out of public places. I figure I just have got to bring him into the lives of people.”

For the Appalachian mission Christmas definitely starts early.

“It is a big undertaking,” Meade said. “We start in July and start looking for donors, putting a database together.”

Then letters go out to non-profits asking if they need assistance this year.

Nowadays the mission provides emergency assistance to families; emergency transportation to doctors’ appointments; operates four Thrift Stores, a homeless shelter and volunteer programs to repair and upgrade homes of the poor; plus its Christmas baskets and toys giveaway.

“I never lose enthusiasm,” Beiting said about his life’s work. “I never want to retire. I never want to say the story is over. Let God decide that.”