Church-hosted community lunches return in Ottawa

Starting this week, the long-time tradition of Ottawa churches hosting lunches every Sunday will go back to being a weekly event where all are welcome.

Pastors Cheri Stewart from First United Methodist Church in Ottawa and Jennifer Amy-Dressler from Open Table United Church of Christ in Ottawa said the lunches have had less of a turnout since returning in a takeout format after taking some time off to reorganize.

Churches have volunteered to serve meals every Sunday on a rotating basis, and lunch will be served from 11:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.

“After COVID, we went from having dine-in with food and fellowship and coffee and conversation and that’s what people really wanted when we came back,” Stewart said. “Now that we’ve resumed, we still get questions about when we’ll be able to have people dine-in again.”

Stewart said the numbers of people attending the free community lunches have dropped to between 20 and 25 people, compared to before the pandemic when they were serving around 90 people per lunch.

“Now that all of our sites are solidified, we want the community to know this is here and it’s for everyone,” Amy-Dressler said. “We especially want to reach people who can use an extra meal and we’ll often send extras for those who need it, or for their neighbors.”

Amy-Dressler said they want to continue to reach folks they haven’t gotten to yet to bring the community together.

“We always take the approach that we want people to be full and we want them to leave having received the hospitality that Jesus would show them,” Stewart said. “That’s filling not only their tummies, but fulling their soul with good food and welcoming, inviting hospitality.”

The free lunches were started somewhere around 2005, according to Mary Grzywa from Christ Episcopal Church, as an idea from former Pastor Sean LaBat who wanted to provide needed meals along with a ministry of hospitality.

Christ Episcopal Church has not been able to keep up with the program in recent years, but rejoined this year after sending a donation and a letter to each of the churches participating thanking them for keeping the program going in its absence. Christ Episcopal, supported by Trinity Lutheran, is back participating in a program founded by members of its church.

This Sunday’s free lunch will take place at Open Table UCC at 910 Columbus St.

From there, it rotates to First Presbyterian Church at 114 E. Jefferson St., then First United Methodist Church at 100 W. Jefferson St., then to Christ Episcopal Church at 113 E. Lafayette St. where Trinity Lutheran Church will be preparing and serving the meals. The first Sunday of every month is hosted at Christ Community Church at 807 La Salle St.