Open Arms partners with local restaurants to provide Sunday lunch to the community
 

[April 23, 2020]   For the second week, a long line of cars gathered at Open Arms Christian Fellowship Church at the beginning of the lunch hour to pick up free lunches provided by the church in partnership with local eateries.

This week the meals were prepared by Nick Guzzardo with help from son JT and the restaurant’s night delivery guy – Ryan.

The three prepared and delivered food to the church. There, church volunteers were on hand to put together carry out meals. Those meals were then later handed out to guests coming past in their vehicles. The lunches are designated to assist those who have families, to help them enjoy a good meal together without doing all the work.

The idea behind the free lunches on Sunday came from understanding that families are currently at home on a daily basis. Three meals a day are needed in the home. During the school year, some families qualify for free breakfast and lunch for their children. The added burden of providing extra meals is cumbersome on some families. The church sees this as a burden they can help relieve by providing a meal on Sunday for the entire family.

In addition, Pastor Larry Crawford noted that this is a means of supporting a local small business and that is also a much needed outreach right now. He noted that this is the second week, and Guzzardo was the restaurant to provide the food purchased by Open Arms.

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In the first week, the meals were purchased from El Mazatlan in Lincoln. Crawford is hopeful that another lunch distribution will occur next week and feature food from another local restaurant.

In addition to serving families who came to the drive-thru lunch service, Open Arm delivered meals to the frontline workers in the community including Lincoln Police, paramedics, fire department and dispatch workers along with staff at nursing homes and Abraham Lincoln Memorial Hospital.

Altogether, the church gave out approximately 750 meals on Sunday.

In the process of handing out meals, the volunteers at Open Arms were very careful to wear masks and gloves and observe social distancing to the best of their ability while serving their community.

[Nila Smith/Karen Hargis]