As it is on most Mondays, the Soup Kitchen of Muncie will be open this Monday from 9:30 to 11:00am, serving a hot meal to anyone who needs it. Except this Monday also happens to be Christmas Day.
The Kitchen has been serving brunch on Christmas mornings for the past four years, organized by Kitchen volunteer and Board President Lois Altman. “We’re really serving two groups of people on Christmas morning,” Lois says. “We have our usual guests with their kids and extended families coming in for a meal, but then we also have people, some who don’t have family nearby or wouldn’t have anything else to do otherwise, who just want to help and need some place to go and be with people on Christmas Day.”
This year we were extremely lucky to have nearly 30 volunteers sign up to help over the course of the morning. And thank goodness, because we’ll need to prep egg bake, sausage, roasted potatoes, biscuits, coffee and hot chocolate with whip cream for nearly 200 guests. In addition, volunteers will help set up the dining room, and sweep and pick up garbage in front of the building to make sure things are extra nice for the guests.
This brunch is always a group effort, not only because of the volunteers, but due to the community supporters who donate food to make sure the meal is extra special. This year saw donations of hot chocolate mix from Minnetrista, plenty of eggs from Woodworth Dining Hall at BSU, plus milk and oranges from Elliot Dining Hall at BSU. Lois herself will be bringing clementines, and always a favorite, Kirk Robey will pass out his special holiday breads to guests in the dining room.
The Soup Kitchen wants to thank all those who participate in the Christmas brunch, either as a volunteer, with donations, or as a guest. It is a truly special event that we look forward to every year. However you celebrate the holidays, we hope it is with the same warmth, compassion and camaraderie that we are grateful to see around the Soup Kitchen every day.
Please join us! Donate or volunteer, or just drop us a line!