First Lutheran Church is offering 100 free meals from 5-6 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 2 at Miller Park.
Chicken tacos, chips and salsa, a dessert and beverage will be served to the first 100 people who come to the Fremont park at 201 S. M St. The food is limited to one meal per person.
Called the “Mobile Meal,” the event is designed to be one of the ways the church can help the community.
“We’re making it free, because we discontinued The Banquet ministry at First Lutheran,” said Amy Spies, staff member.
After more than 10 years and 71,000 free meals, The Banquet ministry concluded at the church in January. Dinners had been served via a drive-thru format during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Banquet returned to its in-person format in June 2022, but numbers of attendees didn’t rebound and the program came to an end.
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“We’ve been trying to think of ways that we could fill that need, since The Banquet ministry ran its course and served the community really well, but now we’re looking at other ways we could help ease food insecurity in our community,” Spies said.
Spies said Fremont Area United Way and the Summer Lunch Program have been helping distribute flyers with information about the free meals. Fremont Area Habitat for Humanity provided First Lutheran with a mailing list so the church could mail out flyers to Habitat homeowners in that area.
This is the first event of this particular type that the church has hosted.
“We’re hoping that if it is well-received that we can offer it a few times a year at parks around town,” Spies said. “We want to see how this will go and if we get a good turnout, we’ll definitely know there’s a need and we’ll try it again.”
Spies invites people to attend, adding that games will be part of the event as well.
“We hope people who need a meal and want to have some time in the park with their family will come,” Spies said. “It’s nice to be able to be together as a community and play some games and sit and eat and talk.”