Compassion Café is currently serving meals once a month. Find out everything you need to know right here.
Who oversees Compassion Café and the Monthly Meals? Compassion Café was established in 2015 and is a Non-Profit 501 (c)(3). There is a 5-member board who oversees the operations. Monthly meals are coordinated by Jenny Sikes and Kristen Starkey. Shoney Williams is our Volunteer Coordinator and ensures we have volunteers in place each month.
Who funds the meal? Compassion Café seeks monthly meal sponsorship from the Community. There are many local churches, businesses, individuals and organizations that have united with us to help serve the community. Support for our meals comes in forms of monetary donations and menu items that complete our meals. Compassion Café also works with the SEMO Food Bank and receives supplemental ingredients on the monthly basis that helps toward our meals
How often do you serve a meal? Currently we serve one meal each month at the Fredericktown R-1 Elementary School Cafeteria. Our ability to serve meals is based on support. As our support continues to grow our vision and hope is to provide meals on a more frequent basis.
Who can come to the meals? Anyone!!! All are welcome!
How can I get involved in sponsoring a meal? We welcome monetary donations to help purchase food and supplies for each meal. If you, your church, business or organization would like to make the purchases on your own, we will be glad to provide a list of our monthly needs. There are a number of ways to help out financially with the Cafe. Some examples are: sponsoring just the paper products to serve the meals, multiple churches and businesses co-sponsoring a meal and dividing the cost between them. Or some Businesses, Churches and Organizations choose to solely sponsor a meal on their own. Monetary contributions in any amount are also very welcomed and appreciated.
I can’t contribute monetarily can I still help volunteer? Yes! Compassion Café has a list of volunteers coordinated through Shoney Williams. Visit our Volunteer page to get more information. Register to be a volunteer and we will contact you regarding preparing, serving or cleaning. You can indicate what you would like to help with and how often on the form.
How much does it cost to provide a monthly community meal? The cost of our monthly meals varies between menus. On average, a meal for 500 people can cost $400.00-$600.00. Paper supplies for a meal prepared for 500 averages around $200.00 in addition to the meal cost.
How many people do you serve? Over our first 12 months of serving Compassion Café averaged 300 meals a month provided to children and adults in our community.
Can we get a meal to go? Yes, Compassion Café offers to go meals during the meal times each month.
How can we get a ride to the café? SMTS is now offering a free transportation service to our meals. If you know anyone in the Marquand and/or Cherokee Pass area needing a ride, have them go to these pickup locations at the date and times listed:
Marquand Post Office: 4:45pm
Cherokee Pass/Barefoot Village Fireworks: 5:00pm
Our normal Fredericktown stops will start pickups at 5:15pm. These locations are: Madison Apartments, Azalea Ridge Apartments, Fredericktown Apartments on Jennifer Street, Waterford Apartments and Newberry Apartments.