GREENVILLE , Ohio ( CNN ) -- The parishioners heard the sirens during Sunday morning services in Greenville , Ohio . A few blocks from St. Paul 's Lutheran Church , a home was burning and five people were dead . Police tape wards off the curious from the duplex where a woman and four children died in a fire September 16 . Shock followed sadness with news that a 10-year-old boy was being charged with arson and murder , more heartbreak for a town in tough times -- but heartbreak that shook people into action . The St. Paul 's parishioners reacted quickly that morning , said Shirley DiRocco , a volunteer at the church . Just passing the collection plate once around the church , she said , `` We came up with $ 300 . '' The money went to buy clothes for the fire 's survivors and food for the emergency crew who responded , she said . Helping out is nothing new for the church -- but a boy being accused of killing his mother , half-sister and three other children in a fire has been unheard of till now . There 's a lot of introspection going on in Greenville , a small town of 13,000 where the good-paying jobs are getting scarce and the problems of big-city poverty are creeping in . Residents are divided on whether the boy is responsible , but they say his plight compels them to look at themselves and face their deepening problems . `` He 's a young kid . There 's something got to be wrong for him to come up with that , '' said Angie Hughes , manager of a downtown Greenville hair salon . `` It has brought to the surface the fact that in this area ... we do have a lot of folks who are the have-nots in the world ... the vast numbers of people in our community who are really deep in poverty , '' said Peter B. Menke , pastor of St. Paul 's . Watch Menke talk about how the tragedy has galvanized Greenville » . St. Paul 's sees firsthand the poverty that led to the boy having to sleep on the sofa , because he had no bed in the half of the duplex he shared with nine other people . Christy Winans managed to escape the fire with her boyfriend , but her three children -- Kayla Winans , 6 ; Je'Shawn Davis , 5 ; and Jasmine Davis , 3 -- died along with their playmate Kaysha Palmer , 8 , who was the boy 's half-sister . The boy 's mother , Chanan Palmer , was also killed . On Monday , as the 10-year-old appeared in court on murder charges , St. Paul 's expanded its lunchtime soup kitchen service to run two days a week . Twenty-two people turned up for the meal that first day . The church had fed 70 people , including parents and children , one day this summer . Menke said the tragedy of September 16 `` has galvanized ... particularly the religious community to action . We not just saying 'Yes , we have a problem , ' but we are looking at ways to genuinely address those issues and do something about it . '' Federal statistics show unemployment is hurting Greenville and surrounding Darke County . Employment in private businesses fell by 7 percent from 2000 to 2005 . Manufacturing companies left town and big employers downsized , like Fram oil filter maker , or closed down completely , like Corning 's fiber-optics plant . Alicia Sommer , who 's lived in Greenville for 37 years and taught in the local schools , says job losses have changed the town . `` On the surface it looks like the ideal hometown , '' she said . `` Everyone wants to raise their kids here , but they ca n't afford it . They have to go where the jobs are , '' she says , leaning on the counter of the downtown coffee shop where she works part time . Walking through the five blocks of downtown Greenville , you see why it looks ideal . Mom-and-pop coffee shops stand in for Starbucks , locals chat on a bench outside a music store , a small cinema offers `` Mr. Bean 's Holiday '' and an Asian monster flick about battling dragons . But St. Paul 's offers the soup kitchen only a block off the Broadway main drag , and the tumbledown housing on Montgomery Street , including the burned duplex , is just a two-minute walk away . Fixing Greenville may be a slow process , and it 's unclear if the continuing case against the 10-year-old will slow it further or provide impetus to the effort . The boy is staying with his maternal grandmother , Tammy Reed , whose daughter died in the fire . The child lost his stepfather to AIDS in July . `` He 's doing really good , '' Reed said of the boy Tuesday morning . No matter how the case turns out , the boy will bear scars forever , his attorney , David Rohrer , said last week . The boy will always know he was charged with killing his mother . `` He 'll never be able to escape that , '' Rohrer said . In downtown Greenville , salons offered $ 5 haircuts Tuesday to raise money for the fire victims . The community wanted to help in any way it could , salon manager Hughes said . Whether that community can also bring Greenville out of its slump may depend on people like Sondra Jackson . Jackson , a letter carrier , walked her new route Monday down Montgomery Street . It was only her second day of work , she said , and she had no idea of the tragedy that unfolded in the burned duplex two weeks before . Jackson said she had just moved to Greenville from Palm Springs , California , where she was born and raised . `` The school system is better in this area , and it 's just a better place to raise kids , '' she said . E-mail to a friend .
Fire killed five people , a 10-year-old boy faces murder and arson charges . Greenville , Ohio , facing realities of poverty as jobs leave . Residents divided whether boy did it ; but united in desire to help town .