500,000 free meals served in York County with more in need during COVID-19 pandemic
Community Cafe volunteers don’t know who received its milestone meal. Not that it matters much to them. They’re just there to serve.
On Thursday, somewhere in the daily stack of to-go meals at Sisk Memorial Baptist Church in Fort Mill, the half-millionth free meal since the cafe began in 2010 went out.
“I don’t even know what the number (of meals served) was when we first started here,” said Marcie Sain, a volunteer at the cafe for four years.
She said deliveries nearly doubled in the spring as in-person cafe sites closed or modified operations at the start of the coronavirus pandemic in March. The cafes still run as takeout only.
“People were afraid to go out and they couldn’t get out,” Sain said. “The cafe was no longer open here for them to come in and eat. And so, it’s just increased (the need) and it’s just amazing that we’ve been able to serve that many people.”
Community Cafe numbers
Serving 500,000 meals started long before COVID-19.
As people struggled from the 2008 economic recession, leaders at River Hills Community Church in Lake Wylie — now Community Church at Lake Wylie — proposed opening a cafe-style free lunch. It’s not a soup kitchen, but rather a fellowship where means to pay doesn’t matter.
Sites have been added and scaled back since the first Lake Wylie cafe opened in 2010. Cafes now run at Lake Wylie Lutheran, Lake Wylie Christian and Sisk Memorial Baptist churches. The cafe also delivers meals to shut-ins. Last year, a food truck hit the road to deliver meals across York County.
Along with the beef barley soup, one constant at the cafe has been numbers. From the several dozen guests early on to thousands of people served every week now, volunteer head chef Don Murfin and his team track the number of meals served. In 2014, the cafe reached the 100,000 meal mark. This year, the cafe served more than 110,000 meals.
On Thursday, Murfin said he knows how the cafe made it this far.
“It’s a God thing,” Murfin said. “And we manage the whole program through working with our Lord.”
Half a million meals is no small feat. That many meals would almost feed every resident in York, Lancaster and Chester counties combined.
A baby born today, at three squares a day, wouldn’t eat meal No. 500,000 until the ripe old age of 456.
Yet there are some numbers that don’t interest the cafe. Murfin relies solely on community donations and doesn’t take federal money, in part, because it would mean serving based on income requirements.
“We don’t ask anybody any questions,” Murfin said. “If they say they need something to eat, we’ll give it to them. And we’ll give them as much as they want.”
Reaching more neighbors
Cafe growth is measured as much in areas served as it is total meals served. The food truck allowed distribution in areas like the Blackmon Road community in Rock Hill. Recent expansion includes the Catawba reservation.
“Yes, we make a lot of food, but we do it because it’s neighbors helping neighbors and we love our neighbors,” Murfin said. “We want to take care of them. And so we just tell people we serve love.”
Half a million meals is important to Murfin to help raise awareness for needed donations. Food and cash donations allow the cafes to produce meals at less than $1 each. There’s a gofundme.com page and Community Cafe Facebook page to accept donations, and a collection pot at the cafe sites. The hundreds of volunteers who served all those meals, some since the beginning, are critical to the cafe, Murfin said.
This year, with the uncertainties during a health pandemic, more meals than ever have been needed.
“But what we really have been serving is compassion for those who have found themselves in need,” Murfin said, “and a whole lot of love.”
This story was originally published December 18, 2020 at 10:44 AM.
