Pastor Cindy Johnson, with St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, says they have been hosting one of the most well-attended “secrets” in the community for about six years now.
The meals are held in the dining hall at St. John on the second Wednesday of each month from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
She says they have chairs that have been instrumental in keeping this program going and having it run so smoothly.
The middle-school-aged confirmation kids have a service team that helps the other volunteers with serving and cleaning up. Johnson says there was only one time they ran out of food. They usually plan on serving about 225 to 230 people and whatever is left gets packaged up for Community of Concern Food Pantry to deliver to group homes. Johnson says they can break out the people they serve into three basic groups. For the first, they are making a difference in their budget. With the second group they are making a difference in their socialization. This is their outing for the month.
The church has also worked for the last couple of years to build a new kitchen to accommodate this service. The only hard rule is they will not serve until 5 p.m. Carry out is available, but not until about 6:15 p.m. to ensure those that came to the meal have food. Johnson says other sponsors include Farmers Coop of Arcadia and the Carroll County Cattlemen and Pork Producers. She says they are fortunate to have such a giving community and anyone wanting to find out how to help out can do so by contacting her at 792-5396. The night of the meal, however, they will not take any monetary donations at all. If you want to give, Johnson says they will take that money any other day of the month.
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