Third weekly free dinner offered in Tri-Cities

There soon will be another day to enjoy a free dinner in the Tri-Cities.

Bethany Lutheran Church of Batavia is starting Last Friday Suppers on Dec. 30.

“It really just is an opportunity to reach out and give back to the community,” said Beth Lawniczak, the church’s shared-ministry coordinator.

That’s the same aim of three other free community suppers in Geneva and St. Charles. All the organizers emphasize the dinners are not just for poor people — they are about feeding the spirit, with even the briefest of connections with a fellow human being.

Soup kitchens are nothing new. But say “soup kitchen,” and people think of gruel ladled out onto plastic-foam plates at a shelter.

Third Tuesday Suppers at United Methodist Church of Geneva and Two Guys Spaghetti Supper in St. Charles fight against that.

Two Guys, which uses space at St. Charles Episcopal Church, features volunteer waiters serving the guests. Third Tuesday uses the church’s real cutlery and plates, and volunteers bus the tables and refresh beverages. It may not seem like a big deal, but tell that to the volunteers getting steamed as they run the commercial dishwashers that clean the mess.

While preparing to serve an expected 700 guests — which ended up being 1,000 — in November, Third Tuesday organizer Beth Kucera instructed volunteers to make sure the person who came in at 6:55 p.m. got the same gracious dining experience as the person who was first in line. That included no breaking down empty tables in the name of efficiency while people were still eating at others, she said.

It’s also good food. People at the Geneva supper clamor for the chief cook’s chicken-and-broccoli casserole, and enjoy theme nights such as Breakfast for Dinner. This month, the chef from Prasino restaurant in St. Charles made short ribs for the crowd. And getting fed couldn’t be easier: There are no reservations, you don’t have to prove you live in town, nobody asks you how much money you make. You just show up.

The dinners aren’t fundraisers for a cause, although donations are welcome.

Lawniczak said the folks at Bethany heard about the Third Tuesday suppers, which have been going on a little more than two years. At the same time, it had welcomed a new-member class that proved to be loaded with people who have the spiritual gift of hospitality and wanted to do more outreach to the general community, she said.

“And we have a perfect place to be doing this kind of thing,” she said of the church’s kitchen and fellowship area.

So Dec. 30, volunteers will dish up pot roast, mashed potatoes, green beans and desserts to anybody and everybody. There also will be hot dogs and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches available.

Bethany chose the last Friday of the month for several reasons: in part to avoid conflicting with other dinners, in part because that’s a free time on the church calendar. But it was also because organizers learned from other agencies that fiscal need seems to be greatest at the end of the month — when there is too much month left and not enough money for food.

The aim, Lawniczak said, is “to help people in need, whether it be in need of fellowship, to be with someone else,” or in economic need.