Jeanne Hart prepares meals to be delivered to homes and businesses.
Meal invitation for friends who are
alone is expanded to entire community
By Rev. Chris Snyder donated and interest began to increase. Two
First UMC, Mt. Vernon weeks before Christmas the local paper ran a
We all know some people in our com- story advertising the meal and the following
munity for whom Christmas is a lonely time. week they ran a feature story about the meal.
Some have no family gatherings to attend, Reservations were made for the dinner and
some are unable to provide a Christmas meal food continued to be donated and prepared.
for their family and feel it is too much effort to Then came Christmas Day. And so did the
prepare a big meal for just one or two people. community. 145 meals were served that day
Occasionally they are invited to celebrations by more than 40 volunteers from the church
by neighbors or friends, but mostly they are and community. 12 meals were delivered to
forgotten. members of the community who are home-
For the last several years Jeanne Hart, a mem- bound and an additional 14 meals delivered to
ber of the First UMC in Mt. Vernon and also employees at local business which were open
their administrative assistant, has hosted a meal on Christmas day. More than 75% of those
for her friends who had no other place to spend served had no connection to the congregation.
Christmas. This year she decided to expand the After the meal people were encouraged to
invitation to everyone in Lawrence County and stay at the church for fellowship and games and
got her church involved. This Christmas, the First snacks were provided in the fellowship hall.
United Methodist Church of Mt. Vernon hosted “The idea was to provide people a place to
a Christmas dinner and invited everyone in spend Christmas, not just a meal, and I think
Lawrence County and beyond. that is exactly what we were able to do,” Hart
Not sure what the response to the invitation said. “Seeing everybody come together and help
would be, Jeanne recruited a few others in the make this event possible and seeing so many
church who shared her passion to provide a throughout the community have a place to go
place for everybody to spend their Christmas for Christmas. It was the best Christmas gift I
and began planning and preparing. Throughout could have received!”
the year items were purchased as they were To contact First UMC, call 417-466-2459 or
on sale at local stores, other items were e-mail chrisksnyder@gmail.com.
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