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Disciples Kitchen Feeds The Hungry
By the Rev. John McDonald, pastor, Waynesboro Second Presbyterian church.

About a year and a half ago Second Presbyterian Church in Waynesboro was looking for ways to reach out to our neighborhood. One of the folks at the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank in Verona mentioned that there was not currently a Soup Kitchen ministry in the City of Waynesboro. When our Witness and Service committee heard about it, light bulbs went off in our hearts. We knew that our church had wonderful cooks and cooked delicious meals all the time. Why couldn’t we serve meals for the hungry in the Waynesboro

area?
We could see people walking by our church every day who could use a meal. Our church is located in a depressed part of the city near the river where there are several homeless people living.
We also visited Trinity Episcopal Church in Staunton which has run a soup kitchen ministry for 30 years where they served between 25 – 40 people during the lunch hour five days-a-week. We felt the need would be no less in Waynesboro.
We knew we were in the ideal location for a ministry of this type and that the need was greater than we as a congregation could handle alone. So we sent a letter to Waynesboro area churches asking for help. Seven churches including four Presbyterian churches responded (Tinkling Spring, Waynesboro First, Hermitage and us).
The first day we opened the doors to what we named “Disciples’ Kitchen” we had twenty people ready to help and for the first 30 minutes we were opened we had 2 people come to eat. They wanted to pay us, but we told them the only thing they could do was tell people we were open.

Ten minutes later we had 10 more people show up for lunch. The ministry has been growing ever since.
We are currently serving an average of 25 people each time we are open. We have served nearly 1,200 meals to 165 different people.
We are meeting several different needs. First we help feed people who are physically hungry. They include people of all races and ages. Some are disabled, sick or out of work. We had a three day old baby come in with his mother. We provide a nutritional meal to people who may have enough to eat, but do not eat a balanced diet. We have people come to the kitchen to get out of the house and see another human being. We never turn anyone away.
    Most of the folks we serve live on the edge of society. Some are substance abusers; some are one paycheck, or illness, car repair, or family situation from destitution. We don’t ask whether they meet some imaginary guideline to qualify for the meal because Christ doesn’t require us to qualify for his grace - he just gives it away.
Because of “Disciples’ Kitchen” our church's food pantry has seen increased usage. We have gone from serving 4 or five families a month to over 20 families a month.
    Our congregation has truly been blessed by opening our doors and getting to know our neighbors and by working with other congregations in over seven denominations and civic organizations to feed God's children here in Waynesboro. We thank the Presbytery for supporting us through a grant from the Moffett Fund and the now six Presbyterian Churches that serve meals (Westminster and Smyrna now help us). If you would like more information on “Disciples’ Kitchen” call Second Presbyterian during our office hours 9 – 1 at (540)943-3211.