GREAT MILLS, Md. — A ribbon cutting Wednesday marked the dedication of the Knott Family Center at the St. Mary’s Caring Soup Kitchen, celebrating a major expansion of services made possible by a 2022 building donation from Joseph “Bubby” Knott and new partnerships aimed at improving access to health and social support in St. Mary’s County.
The Jan. 21 event formally renamed the Point Lookout Road facility in memory of Bubby Knott and highlighted a collaboration that brings the Maryland Department of Social Services and MedStar St. Mary’s Hospital into shared space at the center.
St. Mary’s Caring has served warm meals, groceries and other assistance to county residents since opening at the site in 2022. With the new partnerships, dedicated office space within the Knott Family Center now allows community health advocates to connect residents with additional care and resources, including blood pressure screenings and dietitian consultations.
MedStar Brings Health Access Beyond The Hospital
Emily Cantrell-Stagner, assistant vice president of philanthropy at MedStar St. Mary’s Hospital, said the hospital’s involvement in the Knott Family Center grew out of a deliberate effort to expand MedStar’s community partnerships beyond the hospital campus and focus more directly on unmet needs identified in the county.
Cantrell-Stagner said one of her early priorities after joining MedStar St. Mary’s was connecting with local nonprofits serving under-resourced populations, including St. Mary’s Caring Soup Kitchen, where food insecurity, houselessness and access to care are ongoing challenges in the Lexington Park and Great Mills area.
“We really wanted to focus on nonprofit partnership in the community and see how MedStar St. Mary’s could be a partner for the soup kitchen,” Cantrell-Stagner said. “Our community health needs assessment identifies the Lexington Park and Great Mills area as having a lot of food insecurity, houselessness and people needing help getting connected to resources if they’re uninsured or underinsured.”
Cantrell-Stagner said the shared space at the Knott Family Center allowed MedStar to bring community health advocates directly to residents, helping connect them with care, resources and support in a setting they already trust. She said the organization had long prioritized partnerships that reflected MedStar’s broader philanthropy and community health goals.
“Having a community health advocate here really allows us to be a one-stop shop for this vulnerable population,” Cantrell-Stagner said. “I hope this represents people working together to help others and having a more global picture of what we need in this community.”
Social Services Co-Locate To Improve Access
The Maryland Department of Human Services said the St. Mary’s County Department of Social Services now operates a satellite office within the Knott Family Center to help residents apply for benefits, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and connect customers to resources for urgent needs such as homelessness and domestic violence. The department said other DHS programs are also accessible virtually from the site.
“Through a combination of integrated services, including the social safety net services administered by DSS, the health classes and medical connections provided by MedStar, and a warm meal from the [St. Mary’s Caring Soup] Kitchen, we and our partners are actively supporting the St. Mary’s community, with many of these efforts focused on strengthening food security,” Lilly Price said, press secretary for the Maryland Department of Health and Human Services.
County Leaders Praise Collaborative Model
St. Mary’s County Commissioner Eric Colvin said the Knott Family Center represented the kind of partnership county leaders hope to see more often, bringing established community organizations together in a way that improves access to services.
Colvin pointed to St. Mary’s Caring Soup Kitchen as a long-standing anchor in the community and said the addition of the Department of Social Services and other partners creates a natural, convenient hub for residents who already rely on the site for support.
“This is the pinnacle of what we want to see in partnership,” Colvin said. “It allows the people who are using their services to make use of St. Mary’s Caring. It’s just one convenient location.”
Colvin also said dedicating the building as the Knott Family Center reflected the legacy of Bubby Knott, describing it as a continuation of Knott’s commitment to caring for others and strengthening the community.
“His legacy is all about community and caring about those around him, and that’s exactly what this does,” Colvin said.
Howard Thompson, chairman of the St. Mary’s County Planning Commission, said the dedication of the Knott Family Center reflects a long-standing tradition of community members taking care of one another, a value he said defined Bubby Knott’s approach to philanthropy.
“This is really about the county taking care of its own,” Thompson said. “That’s what Bubby Knott always did. He took care of people, and he did it quietly, without drawing attention to himself. This building was something he believed in because it’s centrally located and able to help people across the county. Seeing it dedicated this way is just carrying on what he wanted to start.”
Scott Ostrow, a St. Mary’s County commissioner, said the Knott Family Center existed because of Bubby Knott’s decision to donate the property and building, calling it the foundation that made St. Mary’s Caring Soup Kitchen and the expanded partnerships possible.
“Bubby Knott is the reason this is here,” Ostrow said. “His legacy lives on by making it possible to serve the community through St. Mary’s Caring and the other organizations that are now sharing this space.”
Ostrow said the building, formerly known as the Brass Rail, had been vacant for years before Knott donated it to support the soup kitchen, allowing services to take root and grow in a centrally located space. He said the center now reflected a tradition of service to the Lexington Park and Great Mills areas, as well as the broader community.
St. Mary’s County Commissioner Mike Hewitt reflected on the legacy of Bubby Knott and the evolution of the Knott Family Center, framing the dedication as an example of how places and people can grow into something larger in service to the community.
“This is a perfect example of taking something that had its good times and letting it mature into something bigger and better,” Hewitt said.
Hewitt described Knott as a hard-working businessman who never forgot the importance of putting food on the table and helping others once he found success. He traced Knott’s connection to the site back to its former life as the Brass Rail, saying the transformation of the building into St. Mary’s Caring represents a natural progression from a place of social gathering to one of direct community support.
“He had the heart of gold, and he wanted to give,” Hewitt said. “His legacy will live on for years and years and years.”
Hewitt also emphasized the role of Christine Millen, executive director of St. Mary’s Caring, crediting her persistence and advocacy over the years for helping expand services to meet growing community needs. Hewitt said that the partnership between the Knott family, St. Mary’s Caring and the broader community reflected a shared commitment to taking care of neighbors.
A Quiet Legacy Of Giving
Karen Siebert and Bobbie Goddard, daughters of Bubby Knott, said the dedication of the Knott Family Center reflected their father’s lifelong commitment to giving back to the community that helped shape his success.
Siebert explained that St. Mary’s Caring Soup Kitchen initially approached the family about leasing or purchasing the building, but that the family ultimately decided to donate it outright, a decision made quietly and without advance notice to the organization. She said the choice aligned naturally with her father’s values and long-standing belief in supporting the community.
“As long as we can remember, our dad has always been very giving and charitable,” Siebert said. “He felt a responsibility to give back to the community that allowed him to succeed.”
Both sisters described their father as a “silent giver” who preferred helping people privately, often assisting families in crisis anonymously and without expectation of recognition. While the building donation is widely known, they said much of his giving occurred behind the scenes, sometimes without even the recipients knowing the source.
“He was a silent giver,” Siebert said. “For everything people know about, there were many more things he did that people will never know about.”
Siebert said the expansion of services at the center reflected how one act of generosity can encourage others to contribute. She described the growth of St. Mary’s Caring as an example of community momentum built through shared values.
Goddard emphasized that Bubby often wanted to see community members enjoy something that was out of their reach or find a way to take stress out of their lives and ease some of the hardships people faced each day.
“He would try to find ways to help them out too, so he could see them grow,” Goddard said. “He said there were different times in his life where someone stepped in and helped, and without that person being there at those times, he never would have succeeded. So, he tried to do the same thing.”
The sisters said they hope the Knott Family Center continues to serve as a place that brings people together and reflects the sense of family, care and responsibility their father embodied throughout his life.
Where Food Becomes The First Step Toward Stability
Kristine Millen, executive director of St. Mary’s Caring, said the Knott Family Center and the expanded partnerships now operating in the building trace directly back to Bubby Knott’s decision to donate the former Brass Rail property to the soup kitchen.
Millen said St. Mary’s Caring initially believed it was entering a negotiation to purchase part of the building but instead received what she described as a surprise gift of the entire facility, a moment she characterized as unexpected and transformative for the organization.
“This would never have happened if Bubby had not given us a building,” Millen said. “It was a total surprise, a total shock, a beautiful miracle.”
Millen said the size and condition of the building required extensive work and long-term planning, but that the gift also created space for St. Mary’s Caring’s broader approach. She said the organization has long prioritized partnerships that bring resources to residents where they already are, rather than expecting people to travel across the county to seek help.
“Our people are not always going to be getting on a bus or going up to Leonardtown to ask for services,” Millen said. “But when the services and the resources are here right in front of them, we’re providing them with an opportunity.”
Millen described how MedStar had already been involved through periodic wellness outreach and said the relationship grew into a more formal presence after MedStar’s philanthropy team toured the facility and identified an opportunity to expand services. She said the co-location of social services and health outreach alongside food assistance strengthened access and trust for people who rely on the soup kitchen.
Millen also emphasized that the building’s impact is tied to how Knott lived and treated people with dignity and inspired others to contribute in practical ways that continued after the donation.
St. Mary’s Caring was named the 2024 Bubby Knott Nonprofit of the Year by the St. Mary’s County Chamber of Commerce, recognizing its impact on quality of life in the community and its continued expansion of services through partnerships.
County officials, nonprofit leaders and community members attended the ribbon cutting to recognize both the legacy of Bubby Knott, whom many of them knew and had personal experiences with, and the broader effort to strengthen coordination between organizations serving vulnerable populations.
Representatives from the Maryland Department of Social Services and MedStar St. Mary’s Hospital were present for the event.
The Knott Family Center is located at 20331 Point Lookout Road in Great Mills and will continue to serve as a hub for food assistance, health outreach and community-based services.
“I hope that this is a place of hope, and it all starts with food,” Millen said. “Once you have food, you can start thinking beyond a hungry tummy.”
St. Mary’s Caring Soup Kitchen
Location: 20331 Point Lookout Road, Great Mills, MD 20634
Hours: Monday through Saturday, Lunch 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., Breakfast 8:30 to 10 a.m.
Phone: (301) 863-5700
St. Mary’s County Department of Social Services
Address: 20331 Point Lookout Road, Great Mills, MD 20634
Hours: Monday–Friday
Phone: (240) 895-7000
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