‘A Heart To Serve’: Hartford Churches Team Up For Community Meals Program

Volunteer Jabar Holley hands out boxed meals in front of Mount Olive Church in Hartford as part of an inter-ministry effort to provide hot meals, free of charge, during the COVID-19 crisis on April 9, 2020. (Tyler Russell/Connecticut Public Radio)

A trio of churches in Hartford’s North End have teamed up to provide dinner six days a week to anyone in need. The partnership is one way faith communities are working together to meet basic needs in the midst of the coronavirus.

Fried chicken and biscuits were hot and ready to go every night at 6 last week — the first week of the program. Jeremy L. Williams pastors Phillips Metropolitan CME Church on Main Street, which gives out dinners on Mondays and Saturdays.

“The congregations are getting more excited and animated, and they’re also concerned about us because this COVID thing is no joke,” Williams said. “There are members of my congregation who have battled COVID-19, some of who have even succumbed to it. In these times, there’s a tricky balance between making sure we can provide for the needs but making sure that everybody’s staying safe.”

Tuesdays and Thursdays are the nights Mount Olive Church Ministries in Hartford gives out free dinners to whoever’s hungry, no questions asked. On the first Tuesday, the 175 meals the church had for that night were gone in less than 10 minutes, said Dion Watkins, Mount Olive’s pastor.

“We want to touch their stomachs, there’s a lot of families that are hurting,” Watkins said. “The church has to be beyond the four walls.”

Read the rest of this story at WNPR’s website.