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Fifth Anniversary
Community Meals
By Marianne Clark
Photos By Nancy Rush
Senior Scribes
In April of 2006 some people at the Brethren Church in Union City, Ohio
sent out 27 letters to churches in the area. The letter was an
invitation to any local church having an interest in providing free
meals for seniors or anyone else who might be in need of a good healthy
meal, to get on the band wagon and be willing to help. The first
meeting was in May of 2006. It was decided that if at least three other
churches would join the effort, they would go for it.
At the first actual meeting the room was full of ladies all sitting
around the table. It was exciting and the only problem was that all the
ladies were from the Bartonia United Methodist Church. There was soon a
call from Chad Wade that Evangelical United Methodist Church had
offered the use of the kitchen and the Fellowship Hall.
On Friday of that week Ruth Strait called and said their church,
Community United Methodist, was interested in being a part of the
operation but would not be able to start for several weeks.
So one June 6, 2006 the first meal was served to 26 individuals. That
was five years ago. We are now serving over 500 meals a week on
Wednesday. We average around 90 to 100 inside in the dining area
and 400 carry outs.
There are four churches participating each taking one of the
Wednesdays. On the fifth Wednesday all four churches go together and
have the responsibility of providing the meal. The Lord has always
provided and we have always had all the food needed and monies to
supply the paper products.
There are times when we get a little low but, no worries, the Lord
always comes through with more than we need. We get asked many times as
people go through the serving line “How do you do it?” The answer, “We
don’t, the Lord provides, we only serve him.”
We have workers from seven or eight different churches. There is a
loving fellowship amoung all the workers. We have prayer before each
meal thanking God for all his blessings with special requests for the
sick and needy.
On June 7, 2011 we celebrated the fifth year anniversary. We had a
special meal even ice cream and cake. The photographer was Nancy Rush
and she did a special job. Dave Smith of the United Brethren Church was
the originator of the Community Meals. It is quite amazing what God has
done with the original small group serving to what we have now. On a
regular basis we have an average of 25 people helping every week. It is
the same servers but a different church each week taking the
responsibility.
No one ever dreamed it would grow to what it has. We have been so
blessed from our Lord.
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