By Stefan RogenmoserThe Gazette
Catherine Campbell volunteers at the dessert line during the Thanksgiving lunch.
Lord’s Ladle Café Thanksgiving volunteers (front, from left) Sally Jader, Mary Groce, Betty Nix, Lainy Inquimboy, Zinna Espirtu, Lelia Burket, Venus Deasis, Mary Ignacio, Helen Tharp, Ruth Shepherd, (back) John Flynn, Eva Petenbrink and Wilton Elder.
Goose Creek United Methodist Church buzzes with people and excitement as the line wraps toward the door the day before Thanksgiving. Volunteers hand out plates and plastic utensils wrapped in a napkin and say, “Happy Thanksgiving.”
Everyone seems to be smiling as they exchange holiday greetings.
As of 10:30 a.m. there is a line outside the door, which normally opens at 11 a.m.
By 11:05 the church’s Lord’s Ladle Café Soup Kitchen and its 50 volunteers have served food to 80 people. Before 1 p.m. about 250 people ate turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, corn, macaroni and cheese, stuffing, bread rolls and an assortment of sweets to be washed down with fresh tea, coffee or water.
It’s the fifth year Lord’s Ladle has been open and the fifth year it has served a Thanksgiving meal to hundreds of hungry and needy families, according to founder and manager Betty Nix.
“Our pastor (The Rev. Debra Dowdley) had a vision to feed the hungry,” Nix said. “On Tuesdays a group of girls meets to make all the desserts from scratch . . . on Wednesday mornings I make all the soup from scratch.”
The food is donated or purchased with donated money, according to Nix. All of the freezers, refrigerators, the six-piece stovetop and three-bay sink were all donated from community or church members.
She puts lists in the church bulletin to request items the soup kitchen needs.
Nix makes sure the kitchen meets South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control standards.
Goose Creek UMC, off Redbank Road, regularly serves food on Wednesdays from 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. with the help of about 15 volunteers and again on Friday, when Immaculate Conception Catholic Church members use the kitchen to feed what is normally a different crowd altogether, Nix said.
On most Wednesdays about 125 people eat lunch and on most Fridays about 60 people show up.
Nix expected 250 – 300 people to eat a generous plate from Lord’s Ladle the day before Thanksgiving. As of noon they had served 175 plates. Forty minutes later they’d served 200 plates.
Lord’s Ladle has grown each year since opening in September 2006, when it only served meals on Wednesdays. By 2007 Immaculate Conception joined forces and began serving meals on Fridays. “Hopefully we’ll be open five days a week in the future,” Nix said.
“There’s not enough to say about this church,” volunteer Lelia Burket said. “Kind people, a woman pastor who explains things without using big words . . . It’s just a feeling you can’t explain.”
As the volunteers fold the orange tablecloths and collect corn on the cob decorations at the end of the meal, their work is far from done. Nix said the tablecloths and decorations would be sent on to the next church that needs them.
