PAT KEITHLEY, LEFT, and Stacey Hurlbutt set up a noon meal at the Lawrence Interdenominational Nutrition Kitchen. LINK has been serving meals since 1985. In February, volunteers served 2,616 meals.

The Lawrence Interdenominational Nutrition Kitchen celebrates its 20th birthday this year, but in some ways it’s not a joyous occasion.

It’s hard to celebrate when 115 to 150 people show up hungry four days a week.

“Honestly, if the world was perfect, we’d go out of business,” said Diane Yeamans, LINK board chair. “But we know we never will.”

As LINK celebrates its 20th year – a musical performance was held to mark the occasion in February – need for food among the homeless and poor has never been higher. Volunteers served 2,616 meals in February, the most for any month in two decades.

For some of those who founded the kitchen in 1985, it’s hard to believe a program that served just six people on its inaugural day has grown into an operation that includes 45 serving organizations – mainly churches – and thousands of volunteers throughout the city.

Early days

The idea for LINK came from Lawrence residents, representing a group of churches and the Emergency Services Council, who were concerned about a finding by a 1984 study by the League of Women Voters study showing there was hunger in Douglas County.

“That was a whole new ballgame at the time,” said Pam Casagrande, one of LINK’s founders. “Then, nobody would have believed it.”

VOLUNTEER STACEY HURLBUTT prepares a meal at the Lawrence Interdenominational Kitchen, 1000 Ky.

The group served its first meal on Feb. 14, 1985, at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, 1234 Ky.

“We had six people the first day, and we thought, ‘Hmm…'” Casagrande said. “It just moved on from there. Six became 15, and so on.”

The kitchen moved to the First Christian Church, 1000 Ky., about 18 months later. It became its own nonprofit corporation in 1988.

Casagrande said the group didn’t figure the need for LINK would continue so long.

“You didn’t conceptualize it would get worse and worse and worse,” she said. “Around that time a lot of mental institutions were closing, and that added to the (hungry) population. War veterans from the Vietnam War were coming back, and there were problems a lot of them had. But since then, the need has grown and grown and grown.”

Volunteer support

Today, LINK serves meals from 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, Sundays and most holidays. Groups volunteer to bring in food, and some people come in to help serve it.

Doors at the church are open from noon to 4 p.m.

It’s a niche that’s worked for Lawrence volunteers as well as those who are served at LINK.

LUKE ANDRUD unpacks food at the LINK meal site.

“I think it’s a type of ministry that is different than anything else we’re involved in,” said Ann Costello, who organizes Corpus Christi Catholic Church’s participation in LINK. “It can involve whole families, and parents can take kids to help serve and see the different ways people live.

“We’re on the western end of town, and people usually don’t associate with the type of people that are being served. I think it opens their eyes to the world.”

Costello said 50 people are typically involved in her church’s LINK days, which occur the fourth Sunday of each month.

The sacrifice of volunteers isn’t lost on those who are served at LINK.

“These are people who give from their hearts,” Terrence Savage said at a recent LINK meal. “That’s the most important thing – they give from their hearts and care for one another.”

‘Caring community’

Yeamans, the board chair, said she didn’t foresee any major changes in LINK as time goes on.

“We will continue to grow if the need grows,” Yeamans said. “I can’t see a situation where the need is going to diminish.”

LINK’s $23,000 annual operating budget covers the lease with First Christian Church and other expenses. Donations cover all of those expenses, but for the first time this year the LINK board is becoming more active in holding a public fund-raising drive.

“To me, LINK is one of the defining organizations of Lawrence,” Yeamans said. “We consider ourselves a caring community. LINK is one of those very practical, hands-on ways where we demonstrate that caring.”