Soup Kitchen in Fear of Closing Doors

BY MELANIE BUCK –

Barbara Morrow, of the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Mena, said they are running out of funding for their weekly soup kitchen and it is in danger of closing. To try to raise money, the church is having a yard sale in their church parking lot on Friday, September 25 from 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. The church is located at 149 Polk Road 43, also known as Fairgrounds Road.

The Arkansas Path Finders, a youth group within Seventh Day Adventist Churches are making free pack lunches for the day as part of a community service project to help the soup kitchen.

The soup kitchen has been serving hot and healthy meals to the community for at least two years each Tuesday from 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. Morrow said they serve at least 130 meals per week and some say it is the only hot meal they get each week. Morrow expressed that they are a small church and they can only do so much but they try. They purchase food from the Feed America program but spend over $1,000 per month trying to keep up with the high demand of feeding Polk County’s hungry.

Kitchen workers are trying in desperation to raise the much-needed funds to keep the kitchen going. “It’s a large family to feed and there are people that are there every week and depend on us,” said Morrow.

Morrow asked that if you bring items for the yard sale, there are not many people available to help out so please bring items that Friday morning and please have your items priced. Morrow said she does have a small amount of space to store something if necessary, but not much.

If you have items for the yard sale, questions about the program, or would like to help out in general, you can contact Morrow at 479-234-1034.

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Jeri Pearson

Jeri is the News Director for Pulse Multi-Media and Editor of The Polk County Pulse. She has 10 years of experience in community focused journalism and has won multiple press association awards.

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