Arendtsville Lions Club welcomes Gettysburg Community Soup Kitchen’s Outreach Liaison
The Community Outreach Liaison for the Gettysburg Community Soup Kitchen met with the Arendtsville Lions Club members for dinner and the opportunity to talk about the Soup Kitchen. Kathleen Redding shared the history of the Gettysburg Soup Kitchen and explained how the need for their services have continued to increase since the first meal was served. On December 31, 2014, a total of 236,306 mid-day meals have been served to the Soup Kitchen guests since 1991 when the first lunch was served. Last year they served 15,541 meals; approximately 1200 more than the previous year.
The members of the Lions Club were interested to learn that the Gettysburg Community Soup Kitchen not only serve hot, nutritious meals every day of the year, it also gives food vouchers once a month to our regular guests and emergency groceries to supplement home pantries when they run low. Occasionally, representatives of other agencies make available to Soup Kitchen guests information about housing and employment, and offer limited medical services in adjacent areas of Peace House.
Alan Dudley, seen in the picture with Kathleen, explained to her that the Lions Club International is the world’s largest service club. They have clubs all around the world. The Lions are well-known for their work in collecting eye glasses and fighting blindness. The Arendtsville Lions Club is committed to providing support for their community. A portion of their support is with monetary donations which they raise from their restaurant at the Adams County Fairgrounds. This year they will donated approximately $15,000 to about thirty-five organizations including the Lions Club International endeavors such as the measles campaign. Members of the Arendtsville Lions Club provide on average 200 volunteer hours every month which includes such activities as road clean-up, visiting nursing homes, delivering blood for Wellspan, youth mentoring, Life Skills support, and Fire Company activities. The Gettysburg Community Soup Kitchen is grateful for the generosity of the Arendtsville Lions Club for its continued support.