By Jeannine Lee Lake—
MUNCIE, IN—I am one of those people who absolutely loves Muncie. I love living here, I love the people here, I love Ball State University where I graduated and I think we might have the market cornered on the “love your neighbor” thing.
I love Muncie because we truly are “Middletown” still in 2022, a wonderful melting pot of tough blue-collar workers, educated professionals, and tons of sub-cultures, races and ethnicities in between.
I think what I love most about Muncie is its “heart,” the way the people here express their care and concern for one another, and I know I’m not the only one who feels that way. We are a community that is always progressing and moving to become a better place to live, whether that’s through government and education or church, civic and social activities.
Muncie’s “heart” – the support for our own, is one of the reasons why I became involved with Feed My Sheep, a community outreach that is celebrating its 27th year of feeding the hungry at Thanksgiving.
Started by former Muncie residents George and Teresa Huggins in 1996, this one-day event began with a few volunteers and now feeds nearly 1,500 each Thanksgiving Day because we care for our own.
Lead by our FMS planning committee, we’ve brought together people from all walks of life—from pastors to Ball State University and Ivy Tech students to lay folk who just want to help
For 25 years in the cafeteria of Muncie Central High School, the event has celebrated the Huggins’s struggle to found FMS and the importance of early support from entities like Christ Temple Global Ministries, Muncie Community Schools and the late Beatrice Foster, who published The Muncie Times (now The Good News.)
For 25 years, we have served almost 2,000 meals to those in need during the holidays, but during the pandemic we decided for safety reasons to give out grocery store gift cards so families could eat in the safety of their own homes.
We raised $15,000 to help 600 families in 2020 and 2021, and while we hope to return to our actual Thanksgiving Day Outreach Dinner in 2023, our committee has decided once again to wait another year for the pandemic to die down a bit so it is less of a health threat for crowds in close proximity in the kitchen and bagging areas.
Unfortunately, donations have been low this year, and we are in need of individual, business and corporate donations to reach our goal of $15,000 for the gift card giveaways.
We are thrilled to have the backing of so many people from so many area companies, including The Star Press, Woof Boom Radio, First Merchants, and Meijer. We welcome any and all company donations.
If you haven’t donated before and are in a position to help, please send what you can and tell others as well.
I love my city and am so glad that Muncie really does have an abundance of support for those less fortunate.
Help us celebrate our 27th anniversary as we give away gift cards and groceries from 9 am-11 am Saturday Nov. 19th at Central High School.
Jeannine Lee Lake is Chair of Feed My Sheep. To donate, please send checks to P.O. Box 78 Yorktown, IN 47396 or email feedmysheepmuncie@gmail.com. You may also make a secured donation via the website at fmsmuncie.org
