Lifeline Volunteers at Community Kitchen Experience Change, While Feeding the Hungry

Talk about a win-win.

Lifeline volunteers help Community Kitchen feed the hungry, and Community Kitchen feeds their own souls in the process.

Lifeline requires all participants to perform community service, reflecting the Christ-centered teachings in the 12-step Celebrate Recovery program to love God and love others. They volunteer about 10,000 hours each year to community organizations, including Community Kitchen.

Sally Michelson, executive director of Community Kitchen, said the partnership with Lifeline serves both organizations well.

First, she said the kitchen, which recently has been feeding up to 1,000 people a day, could not make it without the volunteers from Lifeline. “They are instrumental in our day-to-day operations, and they’re the last ones to leave,” she said.

The Lifeline men, usually three or four a day, literally provide the “heavy lifting” needed to operate the kitchen. They, along with other volunteers from churches and other community organizations, keep the kitchen going.

Likewise, the kitchen helps the men. Michelson said she has observed the difference in the men just days after they arrive.

Sally (right) with husband, Louis, and sister, JoyLentz, at annual Barbecue on the River fundraiser.

“We know the change is going to happen in their attitudes even before they do,” she said, “because we’ve seen it happen with everyone. First, they come in sullen, with their shoulders sagging, they don’t want to be here. And in a day or two, their whole countenance has changed.”

Michelson said when the Lifeline volunteers see how other kitchen volunteers love and respect each other and all of their customers, they believe that love can lift them, too.

“They see how we interact with people – the love and respect we show models the behavior for them. Then, they love it and want to be here. They know we love unconditionally and that we love having them here. Soon, they have the same passion and compassion that they’ve seen here.”

“They realize at one time they, too, needed a meal or shelter,” Michelson said, “and it gives them strength to keep working on their own recovery.”

The Lifeline volunteers see the needs of the kitchen’s customers, the hungry and sometimes homeless people of Paducah. “They need to see people in need because it humbles them. They realize at one time they, too, needed a meal or shelter,” Michelson said, “and it gives them strength to keep working on their own recovery.”