Located on Chapline Street in Wheeling's Centre Market is a small 10 foot by 20 foot photography studio. It is the “home base” of Melody Rae Petras’ artistic passion – specifically analog photography. Melody works with film, VHS, and tintypes.

Hey you! Did you know that you can get 50% off your produce and grocery items when you pay with SNAP at the Public Market, Wheeling’s premier nonprofit grocery store downtown? 

The Public Market, a project of Grow Ohio Valley, partners with local and regional farmers to bring fresh produce, eggs, meat, and dairy products to Wheeling. The Market receives funding through the WV Food and Farm Coalition as well as a private donor for their SNAP Stretch program, which allows them to offer extensive discounts for SNAP/EBT customers on a wide variety of grocery items and produce. 

Community members answer the question ‘what makes a good neighbor?’

Wheeling natives Mike and Devin are lifelong best friends who can often be spotted around Wheeling “horseplaying around,” as Devin likes to say. They are also two of Mustard Seed Mountain’s hardworking vendors, who sell the paper on the street and at several locations around town.

Mike and Devin’s moms were childhood best friends, so the pair met when they were in diapers and spent much of their time growing up together. Now, both in the latter half of their thirties, Mike and Devin say they’re still more like brothers than friends.

“What to do about all these poor people!? Especially in the face of a new age of American innovation, prosperity, and wealth?” We are asking it today, in Wheeling and across the country, too often fraught with overwhelm at the unsurmountable complexity of the seemingly unprecedented situation.

When I first moved to Warwood, no one knocked on my door.

That's not an indictment of Warwood. I've lived in many places in my adult life, and there's rarely been more than a wave from our porches, a smile in passing, and a quick retreat to our own private lives. But I moved to Wheeling for a sense of community, so I’d be damned if I didn’t cultivate that in my own little piece of the city.

People talk about “rock bottom” like it’s a specific address.

Like if you follow someone’s story long enough, you’ll eventually arrive at the same place. A dramatic collapse. A moment where everything falls apart so completely that change becomes the only option left. It’s the version of the story we see in movies and headlines. The job lost. The relationships shattered. The public unraveling that makes the turning point obvious to everyone watching.

But actually, rock bottom isn’t a place. It’s a moment.

Some people make an impression the moment you meet them. They carry themselves with a quiet confidence, possess a seemingly endless well of knowledge, and have an uncanny ability to solve problems that leave everyone else scratching their heads. More importantly, they use those gifts not for recognition, but to make life better for the people around them. Quenton “Q” Northcraft is one of those rare people.

Last October, seeing a need in our community, a group of local friends decided to create a temporary space where people could access resources they needed without paying money or asking the state for help. By starting the Really Really Free Market (RRFM) in Wheeling, we were carrying on a modern-day anarchist tradition that many diverse communities have engaged in over the past twenty years. 

In June, Mayor Denny Magruder announced the formation of a new taskforce to address the issue of homelessness in Wheeling. Magruder said the taskforce will be “guided by local clerics” and is intended to “balance compassion with accountability.” At the time of publication, the council has released little information about the makeup and specifics of the group aside from its chair – Rabbi Joshua Lief of Temple Shalom. As Wheeling’s ‘Homeless Taskforce’ takes shape, Mustard Seed Mountain reflects on the last decade of advocacy for our homeless neighbors.

Wheeling Street Doctor William Mercer teamed up with a big-city street medicine team during a visit to Los Angeles. The trip taught him some new techniques, while affirming the groundbreaking street medicine work that Wheeling is already doing at home. 

I cried when I first saw and spent time with the Saint John’s Bible. It was the resurrection illumination (the pictures that accompany the biblical text) with Jesus telling Mary Magdalene, and all of us, “don’t hold on to me...”

I’ve always heard crying at art was a thing. My mother and sister, both artists, could regularly get a few tears going on  family trips to the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh. I’m more of a crier at things like “Les Miserables,” church, and “It’s a Wonderful Life,” always “It’s a Wonderful Life.” But never art. While I like opportunities to evoke an emotional experience,  I always wondered, what were they seeing in Monet, or Van Gogh that I was just missing? 

So when tears started at the hand painted illumination in the Saint John’s Bible, it finally  registered for me.

West Virginia is no stranger to pulling the shortest straw. 

Since its inception, this state and its people have been subject to ruthless natural resource extraction, harmful legal systems, and widespread social and political manipulation. Although the state has found itself in the grip of the so-called Make America Great Again movement, there are many here who empathize with their immigrant neighbors and are working hard behind the scenes to support them. 

Ryan was a 31-year-old convicted felon who ran the streets of Wood County as a kid, abandoned by a father he never knew and weighed down by a legacy of family addictions and dysfunction, along with the racism he endured as one of the only kids of color in his community.

He says he never really felt like he “had a place in the world” and that he was somehow “less than” the people and the world around him. Nothing in his life made him believe that he had any potential worth or value, and he found his “safety in hiding from the world.” 

Mustard Seed Mountain’s editor sat down for an interview with Ohio Valley Mutual Aid (OVMA) volunteer and organizer Libby Horacek to discuss mutual aid: what it is, what it entails, and how you can get involved.

It is nearly six months since Wheeling closed its exempted homeless camp in freezing December temperatures, displacing around sixty individuals. 

Some former camp residents are now in permanent housing, but many more are staying in abandoned buildings and local shelters. For certain groups, there is still not a clear path forward. 

I have been a Chef for almost 20 years and have worked in the restaurant/hospitality industry for 31 years. The industry is notoriously known for its “work hard, play hard” philosophy. The shifts are generally long as well as physically and mentally demanding. A lot of workers turn to substances when the shift ends to try and decompress and numb the anxiety, including myself.

For a long time, I thought fun and substances were basically the same thing. Not exactly—but close enough that I didn’t question it.

Celebrations meant using. Stress meant using. Boredom meant using. Even happiness somehow circled back to it. I told myself I was having fun. And sometimes, even in the moment, it felt that way. But the part I didn’t talk about—the part that mattered more—was what came the next morning

The White House Historical Association recently opened a new, cutting-edge education experience in Washington, D.C., a first-of-its-kind, immersive center telling the story of the Executive Mansion, its inhabitants, and the people who have dedicated their careers to its functions.

“Like in most cities, transportation is part of the heart of our city."