Clinton Township

Cross Lutheran volunteers serve up generosity through suppers

By Nico Rubello
C & G Staff Writer

CLINTON TOWNSHIP — When Carolyn Kammer took over community ministry at Cross Lutheran Church, she knew that one of the first costs that families in dire financial straits cut is one they can control: food.

“It occurred to us that we could help families who were struggling with unemployment issues with their food budget,” Kammer said.

But you don’t have to be in financial need to attend the suppers, which are now held from 5-7 p.m. on the last Thursday of every month.

“We invite the community to come,” she said. “We don’t question if they have a need or not.”

Since the first community supper in March 2010, the dinners have attracted dozens of people in need of fellowship and a warm, well-balanced meal — free of charge.

Attendance at the community suppers, as volunteers call them, has fluctuated between 30 and 90 people on a month-to-month basis.

Congregation members, however, readily took to putting on the dinners and have
eagerly embraced the program ever since, Kammer said. “I never have trouble getting people to volunteer.”

At the most recent community supper, on Jan. 26, volunteers arrived at the church hours before the 5 p.m. dinner bell. Cooperating as a team, between the church’s two ovens, they baked a plentiful bounty that included 70 pounds of chicken, 75 pounds of potato wedges and two gallons of corn, in addition to green beans, salad, desserts, rolls and beverages.

Most of the food is purchased by the church, or donated by local businesses. Any leftovers are given to people to take home.

Among the supper’s first volunteers was Penny VanHaverbeck. In 1991, she was
going through personal struggles when she found Cross Lutheran.

“It was a downward spiral,” she said. “When I came (to Cross Lutheran), … everything just started to fall into place.” Volunteering, she said, is her way of paying back what she received.

“I’ve led a very blessed life,” said volunteer George Wojdacki. “To me, this is some way of giving my time, my energy, back to the people in the community who’ve not had a life as blessed as mine.”

Karen Webster, another volunteer at Cross Lutheran, credits her mother with getting her involved when she was a child. As a mother, she now tries to instill the same value of community service in her two sons. Her 17-year-old son, Jeremy, was volunteering with her at the Jan. 26 dinner.

“It’s just one way we’re trying to reach out to the community to help,” Karen Webster said. “Times are tough right now.”

Thomas Burns, of Sterling Heights, said he looks forward to the suppers every month because he meets with friends there. He comes for the fellowship and for a delicious dinner without the price of a night out.

Cross Lutheran congregation members who don’t volunteer to cook and staff the dinner, often bake desserts or donate other foods.

Recently, the Mount Zion Lutheran Church Foundation gave Cross Lutheran a $1,800 grant for the suppers, ensuring the program’s survival through the end of 2012.

While donations for the program are welcomed, none are collected from those who attend the suppers.

“This is our gift to the community. This is free to them,” Kammer added.

Though Cross Lutheran can feasibly host only one dinner per month, the church has tried reaching out to surrounding parishes to hold similar dinners on the second and third weeks of the month.

One church, St. Ronald Catholic Church on 15 Mile Road in Clinton Township, responded; it now holds its community suppers on the first Thursday of every month.

“We’re hoping other churches will step in and host the program on the second and third Thursdays of every month, so the community will consistently have a dinner to go to,” Kammer said.

Cross Lutheran Church is located at 35851 Utica Road in Clinton Township. For more information, call (586) 791-6640.

You can reach C & G Staff Writer Nico Rubello at nrubello@candgnews.com or at (586)279-1118.