By GINA KINSLOW
GLASGOW — Several families are reaching out to the Glasgow-Barren County community this Thanksgiving by offering a free meal.
The meal will be served at the Liberty District Ralph Bunche Community Center on Thanksgiving Day from noon to 3 p.m.
“We’re doing it because there are so many people suffering in our community,” said Alma Glover, director of the community center. “There’s a lot of unemployment and a lot of homeless people.”
Glover’s family will join other families in cooking the dinner.
Area churches and other groups have donated food and supplies for the dinner.
“We have had a very good out pouring of people in the community to come and help with this event,” Glover said. “We’ve just been truly blessed.”
Take-out orders will also be available.
“If people call in their orders before noon we will deliver,” Glover said. “People can call in their orders at 834-8537.”
The community center will close at 3 p.m.
The free Thanksgiving meal is the start of something bigger for the community.
“This is going to be the beginning of a soup kitchen that we will be doing around the first of the year,” Glover said. “We’re doing it out of love, service to our community and helping those who need help.”
Glover credits Brother Bob Cooper with Faith United Methodist Church with coming up with the idea for the soup kitchen.
“The main reason, I guess, I came up with the idea is I believe it was a word spoken in my heart through prayer, and what spawned that was I had been working with Sue Haynes, director of the Salvation Army, this was several years ago, there were some people in our community who were elderly who were doing without food to pay their electric bill and their rent,” Cooper said. “Something just kind of clicked inside of me and said, ‘This isn’t right when we’ve got the ability to change that.’ I think if we could get the cooperation of our community behind it, I think, maybe not eliminate it, but make a big dent in helping people who are without food and also let it be a place where we could present the gospel as well.”
Cooper approached the community service board about the idea and meetings began in the summer to further develop the idea.
“We never got too far,” Glover said. “It was just kind of put on hold.”
Plans now are for the soup kitchen to be up and running by mid-January.
In addition to the meal at the Liberty District Ralph Bunche Community Center, a free Thanksgiving meal will be served at Bowling Park in Edmonton also on Thanksgiving Day.
The park will have two servings — 11 a.m. to noon and from 1 to 2 p.m.
“We are preparing enough food for 100 to 150 people,” said Chris Isenberg, park director.
Isenberg was approached by one of the park’s employees about hosting a free Thanksgiving meal.
“He said we need to offer a Thanksgiving meal to people who have no where to go or who are in need,” Isenberg said. “I was all for it.”
The park didn’t ask for donations, but once the word got out that the park was planning to host the meal, donations and offers of assistance began pouring in.
“Right now I’ve got more volunteers than people actually coming to eat,” he said.
Isenberg is asking those who plan to spend Thanksgiving at the park to call ahead so park officials will know if additional food will be needed. To make a reservation at Bowling Park call 432-7204.
More information about the Liberty District Ralph Bunche Community Center can be found at www.bunche.org
