Saturday mornings are busy at Christ United Church of Christ. It’s one of the many times when the church puts faith into action by providing free bagged lunches to those who need them in the community. The weekend lunches are part of the church’s effort and mission to be actively involved in feeding, housing and giving a hand up to Bethlehem’s homeless and food insecure population.

“In the last half year, the church has realized the congregation is called to utilize its facility for various community needs,” said the Rev. John Kunkel, part-time pastor. “We’re truly becoming a center-city mission church.”

The free bagged lunches are provided every Saturday and Sunday from 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. in front of The Gathering Place of Christ UCC at 75 E. Market St. Lunches are limited to one per person.

Heritage Village, a retirement community in Nazareth, provided the lunches Aug. 5. Approximately 18 residents provide five lunches each the first Saturday of each month. “It’s neat because it’s kind of like a smorgasbord,” Pastor Kunkel said. “We generally ask for 80 lunches, and it’s a variety of things, like turkey and peanut butter and jelly.”

Different organizations, families or individuals furnish the lunches. Sometimes they also distribute the lunches, but if they opt not to, other volunteers give out the food.

The church has provided these weekend lunches for the past three years.

“Before COVID, the church had a soup kitchen in the basement on Saturday mornings for many years like clockwork,” Pastor Kunkel said.

When COVID shut the soup kitchen down, Pastor Kunkel, his wife Sally, and co-pastor the Rev. Bob Rapp – also a part-time pastor of Christ UCC as well as executive director of Bethlehem Emergency Sheltering – brainstormed how to keep feeding those in need.

“We said, ‘they’re still hungry, what can we do?’” Pastor Kunkel recalled.

They began bagging lunches comprised of, for example, a sandwich, chips, banana, nutrigrain bar and hard boiled eggs, which are a quick and easy source of protein. “They were nutritious, easily doable and safe to transport,” Pastor Kunkel said, giving much credit to his wife Sally, a nutritionist and home economist, for getting the idea off the ground.

The lunches were distributed on Saturdays and Sundays, “and we never looked back,” Pastor Kunkel said. They served about 30 to 40 people each day in the beginning, and this past July served 250 in a weekend.

“We serve about 200 people a weekend, generally more on a Saturday,” Pastor Kunkel said. “We’ve been blessed with churches, organizations and groups that provide the lunches.”

Pastor Rapp said BES is currently a tenant of Christ UCC, and at the start of covid the two entities partnered on the bagged lunch ministry, which is now under the umbrella of BES.

“We work with them to make it all happen,” Pastor Kunkel said.

Sally Kunkel said a lunch usually consists of two sandwiches or a protein alternative like yogurt, string cheese, fruit (fresh or a fruit cup) and/or a vegetable, a fun food like a salty snack and a protein or granola bar.

“We have supplies on hand to make more if needed,” Sally Kunkel said.

“Volunteers go outside and ask what they’d like to drink and if they’d like a hard boiled egg,” she said.

“We try very hard to make sure they know how much they’re valued. By going out talking, we can ask how they are, how their families are. It makes them an individual,” Sally Kunkel said. “Unfortunately, many don’t have that kind of connection. We let them know they’re valued and have a listening ear.

“It’s food and community,” Sally Kunkel said of the weekend lunches, adding that if someone has a health issue the group can connect them with people who can help.

On Sundays, a continental breakfast is served before the informal 9:15 a.m. service in The Gathering Place. The bagged lunches are distributed after the 10:30 a.m. main service in the church. All are welcome.

“We started the bagged lunch program to serve our street neighbors,” Pastor Rapp said. “We now serve more folks who are housed although food insecure. Regardless, the need is real!”

BES, which launched in 2009, operates a men’s and women’s shelter at Christ UCC from November to April; this year it will open Wednesday, Nov. 15. The group, Pastor Kunkel said, formed as a response to folks who froze to death during the winter.

In the beginning, 13 churches partnered to provide shelter. Christ UCC became the single site for the shelter in 2017, though other churches continue to offer meals and support to the shelter program.

“The dream is to have a year-round shelter - hopefully here - so that anyone living on the street can come here,” Pastor Kunkel said. “The shelter’s most crucial mission is to keep people safe.

“The goal is to have people get back to being housed and a part of society.”

“Many community service providers are brought into the shelter to provide service to our guests,” Pastor Rapp said. “Providers offer health services, mental health services, physical therapy, addictions treatment and recovery, and housing partners to name a few. One group of folks is Valley Health Partners Street Medicine.”

Those at the shelter may come in at 5 p.m. and have a meal, stay overnight, and are given a continental bagged breakfast when they leave at 7 a.m.

Serving To Aid & Restore is a separate group that uses the church facilities each Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. as the group sets up shop in the basement, offering men’s and women’s clothing, toiletries, tents, sleeping bags, pillows, sheets, blankets and linens.

“We try to get everything a person living outside could use,” said STAR Secretary Kathy Rosenfeld.

STAR President George Harmanos said they usually serve 70 people on a Saturday morning, “and we’re always looking for donations.”

The mission at STAR, formerly Helping Bethlehem’s Homeless, is to reach out to those in the community who are homeless or in need by providing necessities, information and other resources in accordance with their needs.

The group was first located at Rosemont Lutheran Church at 1705 W. Broad St. “This space was more convenient because many of our clients live along the river or the Monocacy Creek,” Harmanos said.

Pastor Kunkel said Christ UCC also serves as the north side site of New Bethany Soup Kitchen, which operates for lunch Monday through Friday “with great plans for development.”

People may also use the church‘s address to receive mail.

“It’s rewarding – we’ve had a lot of success stories,” Pastor Kunkel said of the church’s outreach. “My eyes have been opened to the need in this community.”

“Christ UCC is a center city mission congregation providing space for services.”

Check it out

For more information on volunteering and donating visitchristucc.org/,

facebook.com/ChristUCCBethlehem, bethlehememergencysheltering.org/ or facebook.com/BethlehemEmergencySheltering/.

To donate to S.T.A.R. visitstarbethlehempa.org/ orfacebook.com/starbethlehempa/.