Wednesday Lunch: If You Cook It They Will Come

By Reid Sinclair, Church of the Good Shepherd, Athens, Ohio

When folks retire, it's not long before they hear the question: What are you
doing with yourself? Shortly after she retired from the financial aid office at Ohio University, Joanne Larson had an answer: she was feeding the hungry.

Good Shepherd Episcopal Church sits literally in the middle of Ohio University in Athens and next to the Oasis restaurant, once a private business but now owned by the University. It is the closest thing to a bus station that Athens has anymore. The Oasis is a hangout for international students, in part because English for international students is taught in Gordy Hall across the street.

Hungry for more than food

If we cook it, they will come, Joanne and her small band of volunteers must have said. And they did: International students, low on food and hungry as well for American companionship, mentally challenged people, mostly young, occasional bus travelers (the bus stops here at noon on Wednesdays) and the homeless.

The event began with a sign out front and served soup and sandwiches to eight to ten people. There were four volunteers. The number of volunteers has not increased significantly, but the clientele has. Ms. Larson states in her annual report to the parish that 3,210 meals were served to 2,401 (folks can come back for seconds). The pre-Thanksgiving meal was the most bountiful and the most well attended.

Who pays for this? The volunteers/kitchen crew are indeed generous. But other parishioners contribute checks and food items, as well. The free lunch was a $1,000 line item in the 2003 Good Shepherd budget. The Episcopal Community Services Foundation of the Diocese of Southern Ohio contributed $1,000 toward the purchase of a new stove and the Athens Foundation contributed $500 towards a new freezer.

Matt Robinson, a young man who died recently, was representative of the luncheon guests. He would arrive early, play a few piano tunes and share a corny joke with the kitchen crew. “He was such a character, and a special child of God,” former Good Shepherd rector Mike Morgan wrote on hearing of Matt's death.

Ms. Larson says that there are three ingredients that make this ministry work: the volunteers who do the work, the food that comes from community dollars and other sources, and the experience of community shared with people who come to eat together on Wednesdays from noon to 1:00 p.m.

The Wednesday lunch is not Good Shepherd's only involvement in the area's feeding ministry. Betty and Larry Larson are hard-working box packers for the county Food Pantry. On the second Sunday of the month a special collection is made to support the Food Pantry, which has had increased demands in recent month.

And for the last couple of years Good Shepherd has made its kitchen available to work teams that have come to assist with improvements to rural Athens County housing, including one from EAM .