This giving Tuesday, I'm asking for your support to help my second family, the individuals and families who are near and dear to my heart, the Katie's Krops Dinner guests. Our incredible youth volunteers have dedicated the past 12 years to serving meals to our community, and we are committed to continuing to support those facing hunger and food insecurity, no questions asked. With rising gas prices, food shortages and continued inflation, it is crucial that we continue to work to provide fresh produce and hot, healthy and free meals, but we need your help to do so!
For $9, you can provide 6 meals to those in need in our community!
For $24, you can provide 16 meals to those in need in our community!
For $322 you can sponsor our delivery meals for a dinner!
And for $900, you can sponsor an entire Katie's Krops Dinner!
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On October 20th, we celebrated the 12th anniversary of the Katie's Krops Dinners. I was just 12 years old when I started our Katie's Krops Dinners; at now 24, I have spent half my life working to serve healthy free garden-to-table meals to my community!
When we began the Katie's Krops Dinners, they were sit down dinners served to between 150-250 guests in the Fellowship Hall of Summerville Baptist Church. The dinners became are more than just a hot, healthy meals.They became about fellowship and family. Every dinner guest, whether or not they knew each other before they stepped through the doors, became a part of a family. We celebrated birthdays, anniversaries, new jobs, and new additions to families! We mourned together when we lost members of our Katie's Krops family of guests. We were there for each other when times were tough. The dinners also became a place of refuge for our homeless guests, who knew they were safe and welcomed to stay as long as they wanted. Some of my fondest memories of fourteen years with Katie's Krops occurred at our sit-down dinners.
When the pandemic hit in March of 2020, and the world shut down, our friends at Summerville Baptist graciously allowed us to continue using their facilities to feed our community. Instead of hosting dinners monthly, we began serving once a week. Rather than utilizing the Fellowship Hall, as COVID restrictions would not allow, we started drive-thru distributions, utilizing the entire parking lot. In 2021, we prepared and served over 25,000 free garden-to-table to-go meals and, with our improved delivery system, could deliver an additional 7,000 meals! We continue this model to this day, serving over 600+ meals each dinner. Since beginning the Katie's Krops Dinners, our youth volunteers have prepared and served over 79,000 meals!