New Ministry Serves Up Hot Meals for Hatboro

What does 80 pounds of meatloaf, 40 volunteers and 55 visitors yield?

A home-cooked meal and full stomachs all around as part of Lehman United Methodist Church's brand-new monthly community dinner. 

Every third Wednesday of the month, the Hatboro place of worship plans to provide a hot dinner for the community.

The church held its first community meal on Feb. 15. The monthly event is a new ministry effort from the congregation. 

"We want to offer a free hot meal for people in the community, but also provide fellowship in addition to food for their bodies," organizer Sarah Kistenmacher said. Kistenmacher has been a member of Lehman all of her life and will be in charge of running the monthly dinners.

The first meal was made possible due entirely to donations from within the church, including 80 pounds of meatloaf, according to Kistenmacher. Dinner also included mashed potatoes and green beans.

Since the Feb. 15 event was the first community dinner, the congregation didn't know what to expect, but Kistenmacher said she was impressed by the turnout.

"We had 55 people for the first time, which is wonderful," she said.

In addition to the large group that turned out to enjoy the meal, many parishioners volunteered their services.

"It was a real church effort," Kistenmacher said.

She and four others spent the day preparing food and setting up. Then throughout the meal, Kistenmacher said roughly 40 volunteers helped serve and clean up or baked desserts.

The tentative plan for the next dinner is to serve baked ziti, made from donated goods.

People that didn't have time to provide food donations gave a monetary gift, which was also useful. Kistenmacher said the money was then used to purchase other supplies for the community dinner, and prevents the ministry from having to reach in to church funds for additional supplies.

The next community dinner is scheduled for 6 p.m. on March 21 at the church.