First United Methodist Church will offer the hungry a free hot meal today and every second Saturday of each month.

Matthew 25 Missions Ministry, a mission led by church members Shirley Stone and Lorre Bowen under the church’s missions committee, was established to aid in feeding the community’s homeless population and the hungry, said Sandy Matthews, publicity chairperson of the ministry. The second Saturday of each month from noon until 2 p.m., the church will host the homeless at the First United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall to enjoy a hot meal, Matthews said.

“We decided we wanted to do this one Saturday a month,” Matthews said. “We are trying to feed the people in the Washington community who are homeless and we were concerned about trying to make sure these homeless people had a weekend meal.”

The ministry committee has formed six teams to cook and serve the meals. Each team, made up of 10 people from different subgroups in the church like the boy scouts and youth group, will serve two months out of the year. The teams will also make a snack bag for the homeless to carry with them. Each bag is filled with cookies, chips, Gatorade, Nature Valley protein bars, applesauce and peanut butter crackers. They will also receive devotional materials and a hygiene kit, made up of deodorant, soap, shampoo, toothpaste and a toothbrush, Matthews said.

The idea for the ministry came from the Bible verse Matthew 25:35, Matthews said. It states “For I was hungry and you gave you me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in.” The ministry is possible through donations from the community and the congregation.

“It’s all about tending to the homeless and the poor,” Matthews said. “We took it before our board and said if we didn’t have enough startup money to do this, we would ask for donations from the congregation. I went before the congregation June 8 and we’ve had over $1,200 for start up.”

Matthews said the only place for the homeless to eat has been the Zion Shelter, which provides a meal at noon Monday through Friday. However, Beebe Memorial Church started a weekend meal for the homeless the fourth Saturday of each month.

FUMC got in touch with Beebe to find out how they did it and what kind of response they had, Matthews said. The church partnered with Beebe and fed the homeless at Beebe Park on Memorial Day weekend and got an idea of how Beebe conducts the meal offerings.

“They’ve been doing this for at least a year,” Matthews said. “They came to our church and talked to our missions committee so we took their ideas and expanded on that.”

Matthews said the church has advertised the meal through the Zion Shelter, Agape Clinic and several places around town. The church is hoping to start with providing 25 meals and build from there. They hope to get other churches involved to expand weekend meal offerings to the homeless and the hungry, Matthews said.

“Part of this comes from donations, but the meal is being contributed and cooked by our team members,” Matthews said. “Signs will be put up on Mondays before we serve. We are trying to expand it so we might be able to encourage some of the other churches to take on the other Sundays. We’re doing it because we know there are hungry people in the community that have limited ways to eat.”