Every Sunday at noon, at the parish center of Saint Anne’s church on Free Street, a team of volunteers serves a hearty meal of meat and vegetables – the kind of meal that can really fill up empty stomachs.

“We are told the food is very good,” said Kathie Lombard, Co-coordinator

Our Lady’s Kitchen is part of the Social Justice and Peace Commission at Our Lady of the Snows, the parish of which Saint Anne’s church is a part.

Lombard and co-coordinator Woody Livingston know some families need more help than one meal a week can provide. Lombard said, “You don’t think that kind of hunger is in your area, but it is.”

One volunteer overheard a mother talking to her child. “Look at this,” the woman said. “We can have supper tomorrow night.”

In addition to leftovers, guests can take home food from the give-away table to help them get through the week.

The majority of the kitchen’s guests are elderly. “Some of them are hungry, some of them are lonely, and some of them are supporting Our Lady’s Kitchen,” Lombard said.

“We’re happy to have the elderly population there, but we’d like to see more young families as well,” Lombard said.

Guests who can afford to pay for their meals usually do and the money they drop in the donation box is, often, enough to feed those who can’t.

Most guests come from the town of Dexter, but Our Lady of the Snows parish also covers Milo, Dover-Foxcroft and the surrounding communities. Saint Agnes Parish in Pittsfield is combined with these to form an administrative cluster.

Livingston and Lombard want to reach out to all of those communities.

A year from now Lombard would like to see the dining room overflowing with people of diverse ages from all four communities. “We’ll do two sittings if we have to.”

For more information about Our Lady’s Kitchen please contact Kathie Lombard at 938-3307 or email kathiehl@kynd.net. Monetary donations may be mailed to Our Lady of the Snows, PO Box 193, Dexter, Maine 04930-0193.