Marshall County Tribune: Features: First Methodist opens Care Kitchen (01/16/08)

Photo by Karen Hall Children line up first to be served by Susie Comstock and Barbara Hery. Nancy Pruitt and Betsy Shelton are in the background and Roxanne Worthy is behind the pillar.

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Earlier this winter Betsy Shelton was approached on the street in Lewisburg by a boy who said he hadn't eaten for four days. She was a little frightened and hardly knew what to do, but the incident got her thinking.

Now she believes it was clearly God calling her to do something about the hungry people of Marshall County.

After Shelton told the other members of First United Methodist Church what had happened, they decided to follow the lead of their sister church in Columbia and start serving a free, hot meal once a week.

"We feel like it needs to be home-cooked and hot," said Shelton.

They observed the meal in Columbia a couple of times and also got a copy of their People's Table cookbook. Then, on a Thursday night a month ago, the Care Kitchen served their first meal to 10 people.

Columbia started small, too, about seven months ago. Now they are feeding more than 150 people twice a week, Tuesdays in the evening and Fridays at midday.

See Wednesday's Tribune for the complete story.