Published: April 10, 2009 11:18 pm      

Church serves up free meal

Goal is to serve 5,000 dinners

A passage in the Bible’s Book of Mark tells how Jesus fed 5,000 followers using five loaves of bread and two fish. On Good Friday, Morning Star Church hoped to provide that many people with a free chicken and noodle dinner.

A steady stream of cars and people moved through the church’s parking lot for the meal and fellowship. The church was not accepting any donations toward the cost of the meal.

James Lowery was surprised the church wouldn’t accept a freewill offering to help cover the cost of the meal.

“This is something you need in these tough economic times,” Lowery said. “A lot of people are down on their luck. This is nice for the community.”

Dixie Henderson learned about the free dinner when her husband brought home a postcard.

“I thought, ‘A free meal, those are the people who make the really good noodles at the [4-H] fair,’” she said. “This is really nice with the way the economy is. It allows people to get a free meal.”

Henderson said her family normally eats a couple of nights at the church’s tent at the fair.

“I was surprised they were doing this,” she said.

Henderson’s daughter, Emily, who is home-schooled, said they took a break from studies to come to the church.

“It’s the only reason I go to the fair,” she said of the chicken and noodles. “I just said if I had to eat these every day for the rest of my life, I would die happy.”

Emily Henderson said the homemade noodles are what makes the meal special.

Church members worked for six weeks to make 400 pounds of the homemade noodles. They also cooked 480 pounds of chicken.

Church member Colette Hoover, whose grandfather Luke Martin was the founding pastor of Morning Star, said there has been a great turnout.

“It was a little overwhelming,” Hoover said when the idea for the meal was first announced. “I wondered if it could be done.”

Joanne Bargerhuff said the dinner was well organized.

“It’s a Godsend,” she said. “It appears the people coming in are the ones that will benefit the most. We were concentrating on the Darrough Chapel area to help meet their needs. I think a lot of people are out of work there. It’s very close to the church, and we wanted to help the community.”

Wanda Stevens volunteered her time on the serving line preparing the carryout meals.

“I thought the idea was wonderful,” she said of the dinner. “There are so many people out of a job right now. We wanted to do this for our city and surrounding communities.”

Stevens said people have offered to make a donation to the church.

“I enjoy meeting the people, they have been so kind,” she said. “It’s possible we would do it again.”

Stevens said the idea came from Don Smith, a Sunday school teacher.

“God was telling him to do this,” she said. “Don always guides us in the right direction.”

Youth Pastor Jeff Evans was keeping track of the carryout orders and those to be delivered.

Evans said there were 1,500 carryout orders called in before Friday and 140 people had walked in by noon.

“We have never done anything like this before,” he said. “We didn’t know what to expect.”

Evans said he was wowed by the idea. He said the church was serving in one day the same amount of meals served in four days at the fair.

“This is exciting,” he said. “Sometimes it’s good to take on a new challenge.”

The three Howard County commissioners are sponsoring a free chicken and noodle dinner from 4 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Howard Masonic Temple, 316 N. Washington St.

The commissioners are paying for the cost of the meal. No tax dollars are being used, and no donations will be accepted.

Ken de la Bastide can be reached at (765) 454-8580 or via e-mail at ken.delabastide@kokomotribune.com