Open Table: Getting "a good solid meal" at Fulton's soup kitchen

Open Table is the local soup kitchen in Fulton that serves dinner to the community four days a week — regardless of income.

Sue Beaty is the president and shared a little about the group and how they're serving the community through conversation and over dinner.

Sue Beaty: We serve Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. We cook our own meals down there and serve them. It's a congregate setting, so we want people to stay and eat and socialize.

We have a team — it's the same team every month, like the third Wednesday knows when they're supposed to be there, and so it's a team.

Most of the teams are from churches, but not all. One's the Rotary Club, some is the Pickleball Club in town. So, it's just different people that want to volunteer.

We average about 35 to 50. So, if you've ever done much cooking, it's hard to plan — do we cook for 35 or do we cook for 50? We never know how many are coming. So, typically we aim for about 40, and that works out pretty well.

I don't think anybody's been turned away not getting firsts. Sometimes we don't have any seconds, but that's okay, because they get a good solid meal.

We have our regulars, and some of them are older people. This one gentleman, you know, he's probably up in his 80s. He served in one of the wars, and he doesn't get around too well.

He's so, he's really cute. They put a chair for him, and he has his chair right in the first of the line, so he can be first in line, and he's always very thankful for his meal. We have several older folks like that.

We have people who are staying at Our House, you know, the shelter. So, they stay there at night, but then during the day they're just around town.

We have some children. Some nights we'll have maybe eight or 10 children, other nights not quite that many.

Provided by Open Table

I — a lot of times — will carry a little card around, and like, if I go to the library or someplace, I see people sitting on benches, I'll say, "Hey, where do you live?” If they say, "Well, I'm at the shelter right now,” I say "Hey, you know about the soup kitchen? I was telling you, ‘Come down for a meal,’” and so, we had some people show up like that,

I think our volunteers are very passionate about what they do, and I think they have a servant's heart — I think you have to have a servant's heart to do this because you know, I just I enjoy meeting people. “How's your day going?”

And one time, I had a lady, “How are you doing?” And she goes, “I'm just so nervous.”

I said, “What are you nervous about?”

And she goes, “Because my son just called me, and he's gonna call me back in a little bit. I haven't talked to him in two years.”

I said, "Oh my gosh, that's a blessing.”

And even with the little guys, like last night, we weren't gonna make them eat the stew because some of these kids just don't like all their food put together like that.

But we'll say, “Now you've got to pick out at least one vegetable. You gotta eat something before you have that piece of cake,” you know. We kind of act like the mom.

Laughter

We feel like this is really important for them because some of them really, you know, they'll come in with their big sodas and stuff, and it's like, “Okay, guys,” you know, “let's get something in your tummies that will help you in school.”

If we — usually, we’ll eat in shifts ourselves. If we think we have enough food, we'll eat a little bit ourselves, and we'll go over to table and sit with somebody, and just see how they're doing and see what's new.

And if children show up by themselves — we prefer they not, but if they do, they're supposed to sit in a certain table, so we can kind of keep an eye on them, you know. We don't want any food fights, you know?

Laughter

Provided by Open Table