How does a small church feed 155 people on only $29.88?  The answer is:  Their community partners step in and help.  Since 2005 St. Mark’s Lutheran Church on Route 370 has been providing a free hot meal to the community on the third Thursday of each month. Originally, meals were served restaurant style inside the church building, but Covid forced them to utilize a drive thru as a means to get a free, nutritious meal to people who needed it.
The next free dinner will take place at St. Mark’s, 2840 Cold Springs Road in Baldwinsville, on Thursday, Sept. 19, beginning at 4 p.m.  Chicken and biscuits is on the menu.  The meal is drive-thru only.
These days, St. Mark’s is feeding an average of 200 dinners to the community during these monthly dinners; more people than ever before.  During the recent month of August, for their ziti dinner, they reached out to Baldwinsville area businesses to see if any wanted to partner with them to feed the community.  The answer was a resounding yes.
Wegmans, Walmart, Tops (Downer Street and Moyers Corners) and Pizza Man stepped in with gift card donations. These provided supplies that were needed to make salad and provide bread to enhance the ziti meal.
When it came to donating a large pan of ziti, the Canalside Café & Bistro, Gino & Joe’s, Tassone’s and Twin Trees all agreed to help.
To round out the meal with something sweet, Peace Inc. donated all the desserts.
It’s been said “There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about.” Clearly this community cares about dealing with the food insecurity our neighbors are facing.