Community Table at Dale Presbyterian Church celebrated its one year anniversary February 5, 2010. Beginning with a $1,000 faith offering from Dale Presbyterian Church, Dale, IN, a ministry was born which offers a free meal to anyone who comes through the door every Thursday evening. Over 75 volunteers from all over Spencer County, IN, representing every church and civic organization, have fed 50-60 people a night since the ministry began.
Personal and corporate donations keep the Community Table bountiful. A grant from Owensboro Medical Center bought two new stoves, two large freezers and a refrigerator for Dale Presbyterian Church and Community Table. Memorial gifts bought round tables to replace the old rectangular ones. A recent grant from the Spencer County Community Foundation will buy new chairs.
Community Table has partnered with Bread for Life and other organizations to not only feed people on Thursday evenings but to send food home with every child who comes to the meal. When the organizing visionaries realized children on the lunch program at school were going hungry over the weekend, Community Table saw another opportunity to serve. A program called Let’s Eat was the dream of a volunteer youth and now sends non-perishable food for the weekend home with 20-25 children every week.
Elder Tom Thake of Dale Presbyterian Church has been the coordinator of Community Table. Because of his tenacity and lively, generous spirit, three other churches in the tri-county community have started feeding programs in the past year—Huntingburg Christian Church, Tell City United Church of Christ and St. Vincent DePaul in Jasper, IN.
What’s next for Dale Presbyterian Church? They will be partnering with Spencer County Churches on a project called Feed My Starving Children. Their goal is to raise $22,000 to package over 110,000 meals to be distributed in over 70 third world countries around the world.
The Spencer County Churches are also continuing to help feed the people of Niger who have faced terrible drought and locust infestation. The church has partnered with Santa Claus UMC and St. Peter/Trinity UCC to build three wells in Niger On June 25th, Dale Presbyterian will be praying in Indiana as the pastor of St. Peter/Trinity UCC, Rev. Dr. Chip Jahn, dedicates the wells and blesses the land in Niger.
Dale Presbyterian Church’s pastor, Rev. Dr. Martha FrizLanger is so grateful to serve with such dedicated people. Though some would call the church small with its 62 members, she calls them faithful, mighty servants of Christ.