Father Jim returns to flood-stricken EKY store with a surprise for grocery shoppers
It has been more than three years since devastating, once-in-a-thousand-year floodwaters tore through the Letcher County community of Isom, but there are still signs the unincorporated Appalachian village, which lies in a narrow valley surrounded by creek water, is still picking up the pieces.
Lexington Papal Missionary of Mercy Father Jim Sichko says the yearslong recovery has weighed on him since he first began visiting the region after the July 2022 flood. This week, he said he decided to pitch in by spreading a little extra holiday joy.
Sichko made the two-and-a-half-hour drive from Lexington to don an apron and name tag at the local landmark IGA that straddles a parking lot between Kentucky Route 7 and Rockhouse Creek in Isom. Lucky customers that wandered through his line at the store got a welcome surprise: free groceries.
“We all know the struggle they have been through from the flooding,” Sichko told the Herald-Leader. “There are some very deep-rooted issues they are meeting within this Appalachian community, and I think they deserve the blessing.”
The charismatic priest, well-known in Central and Eastern Kentucky for his random acts of kindness and playful fashion sense, spent more than an hour behind an IGA cash register Wednesday, making a show of handing over $0 receipts to bewildered customers and bantering with staff.
Isom’s sole major grocery store is conspicuously pristine in a rugged coal mining and logging community. The Christon family that owns the store had to restart from virtually nothing after the flood left behind a 6-foot wall of filth and rotting food in 2022.
Seemingly new everything — from floors, to lights to shelves — make the place “unrecognizable” regular shoppers told the Herald-Leader. That is thanks, in part, to Sichko who learned about the Christons’ struggle to rebuild without flood insurance and has delivered a combined $95,000 in donations to help reopen the store, plus about $10,000 in Amazon gift cards for its 23 or so briefly unemployed workers.
On Dec. 31, Sichko added another $1,600 or so to the rural community and unsuspecting IGA shoppers who said they were shocked to learn they owed nothing when they went to hand over cash or tap their credit cards at the priest’s register.
“I never knew when we left the house this morning that we would be blessed like this,” said Burnett Roark, 58, of Topmost in nearby Knott County. “I love it. We love this little store right here, and we were so glad when they got it built back after the flood. It’s been here a staple in the community forever.”
Sichko said he enjoyed watching people’s faces as they reflexively moved to pay. One elderly woman seemed so taken aback by the gesture she still signed over a crisp check for “zero dollars and zero cents.”
Missionaries of Mercy are priests commissioned by the Vatican to become illustrations of mercy by hearing confessions and preaching outside the confines of a parish and by serving as visible icons of Godly love.
Although dignitaries of the Catholic Church broadly, the missionaries maintain close ties to their local diocese. Sichko told the Herald-Leader he is fortunate to work with Lexington Diocese Bishop John Stowe, who has adopted the Franciscan ideology of poverty, humility and acts of service.
“This doesn’t just originate from me,” Sichko said. “This comes from Pope Leo down.”
For the community of residents who rely on the IGA as a lifeline and cultural staple in rural Eastern Kentucky, the good deeds were much appreciated.
“It gives me hope that there’s still good people in the world,” said Jessica Sandlin, 44, of Knott County. “It means a lot to us in this economy and as hard as life can get around here.”
This story was originally published January 3, 2026 at 7:00 AM.
