Every Sunday for the past 14 years, First Presbyterian Church of the Covenant has served a dinner for food-insecure and unhoused individuals in our community. But this isn’t an ordinary soup kitchen. Sunday Suppers serves meals on real tableware with real silverware and has a warm and welcoming energy, with 15 round tables dispersed throughout the room. This past Sunday, on July 26, the church basement was filled with over 200 people needing a warm meal.
At the helm is Pat Tracy, who also runs the seasonal overnight shelter Our Neighbors Place. She had flowers tucked in her hair from a guest who came for a meal. Community members frequently approached Tracy while we chatted and she greeted them or gave them a hug. “One of my jobs is to be a hugger,” she said. “I believe there’s a great value in personal touch.”
During Independence Day weekend in 2012, Tracy heard a guest at the shelter mention that they would be dumpster diving for food when the shelter was closed on Sunday night. “That was the first we knew that there was no free meal in downtown on Sunday, and that’s how the idea was born,” Tracy said…