Free meals fill community in hard times

There is such a thing as a free lunch.

It is offered each Wednesday on Booster Way in Angels Camp, across the street from Sierra HOPE and the Utica Power Authority offices. For the fifth consecutive week, volunteers from Union Congregational Church served up a hearty meal to whoever came along.

The Rev. Lloyd Schneider, the church’s pastor, said the idea of a meal program project pre-dated his two-year-old tenure with the Angels Camp congregation.
  

“It took a while to activate it,” Schneider said. “But when things started to really go in the tank economically in September, we really made stronger connections.”

UPA generously donates the space each week while Sierra HOPE has given significant logistical support, Schneider said.

The community response has told the volunteers the service came at the right time. About 20 people came to the table for chili and cornbread Wednesday and volunteer Jim Stearns, of Sheep Ranch, said a total of 40 to 70 meals have been distributed each week when deliveries are also factored in.

He hopes to expand that to 100 in the next few weeks.

Schneider added that the location of the free meal service may be changed to Utica Park with city approval, citing a permanent shelter, increased visibility and electrical outlets as advantages to that spot.

Sierra HOPE already distributes foodstuffs to a needy clientele on Wednesday afternoons and Schneider said the church initially wished to “come where people are already ... rather than try to find (them).”

Emily Blackledge, of Angels Camp, said she had been coming to the food bank and noticed the tables across the street a few weeks ago. She ate then and has been returning ever since.

“It’s a great idea because there’s a lot of us here who can’t have food every day so it’s pretty nice,” she said.

Schneider said the food, prepared with the help of the Main Street Cafe in Altaville, and kept in a warmer in the back of a pickup truck, is meant to be “simple and healthy ... we’re trying to be real mindful of our ingredients.”

Michele Dauvet, of Vallecito, has been delivering meals to some of her neighbors and is working to get the “2 Gather” community garden started on her property this spring. Families will be able to plant their own fruits and vegetables there and some rows will be set aside for the hungry and some of the food provided for the Wednesday meals, she said.

Stearns added that if the need continues to grow, the volunteers have the capability to provide meals an additional day each week.