By Paul Osmundson
Nearly 160 people lined up on Saturday morning, November 8, 2025, in downtown Columbia seeking a basic meal. Some are unhoused, living on the city’s streets. Some stay temporarily at nearby shelters, while others struggle to pay for rent, food and clothing.
But thanks to St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church, on this Saturday morning, they weren’t hungry. Nearly 25 parishioners served a church-cooked lunch of chicken casserole, green beans, salad and apple sauce.
Twice a year, St. Andrew’s works with Resurrections, a non-profit that ministers to Columbia’s unhoused, to provide lunch. St. Andrew’s is one of eight groups that partnered with Resurrections this year to provide meals on the second Saturday of every month, according to Larry Nichols, a co-founder of the group.
Beth Trump, chair of St. Andrew’s Social Ministry Team, said the church serves the meals because the gospel calls us to “feed the hungry, take care of the imprisoned, take care of the widows and orphans. We’re just called to do it.”
Nichols, who has led efforts to feed Columbia’s homeless for more than a decade, says St. Andrew’s works “splendidly” with Resurrections, providing meals that he called “bountiful.”
Several St. Andrew’s members said the church is committed to providing well-balanced meals. No hamburgers and fries from us.
The meals are planned by Trump, Susan Beeler and Beeler’s daughter, Amy Vickers. When the menu is set, Beeler and Vickers spend a couple of days visiting Sam’s Club, Costco or other stores to find the best prices for each item, they said.
Food for the November lunch cost about $600 total, according to Beeler and Vickers. The money usually comes from several sources: grants from Thrivent Financial Services; the church ministry plan’s social media allocations; and donations for social ministry to the Pastor’s discretionary fund.
But food for the November lunch was paid for with a
$1,000 donation from an anonymous friend of St. Andrew’s, Beth Trump said. The donor “sees what work we do in the community and she’s impressed and wanted to give toward that effort,” Trump said.
Beeler and Vickers purchased enough food to serve about 240 people. The items included:
- Eight 4-pound packages of chicken breasts
- Six 50-ounce cans of cream of chicken soup
- Six 50-ounce cans of cream of mushroom soup
- Six 50-ounce cans of cream of celery soup
- Two 5-pound containers of sour cream
- Ten 1-pound bags of medium noodles
- Twelve loaves of sliced bread
- Five pounds of butter
- Four large cans of chicken broth
- Two cases of green beans
On Wednesday and Thursday before the meal was served, Beeler cooked the pasta and sliced the bread into one-inch squares at home. On Friday, she and Vickers spent about
4.5 hours at St. Andrew’s assembling the pasta casserole pans, cooking the green beans and preparing the salad. The casserole, which included shredded chicken, noodles, a mixture of the soups, sour cream, bread and butter, cooked for about 1.5 hours.
“It’s time consuming but we enjoy doing it,” Beeler said.
“We are so much more fortunate than these folks,” she said. “Every little bit helps; we try to do our part.”
The food was refrigerated overnight on Friday, reheated by Pastor Trump on Saturday morning, and taken to Elmwood and Main by the Caseys – Joe, Evie and Shane – as well as Pastor Trump.
Resurrections leases the building from Christ Central Ministries to serve the meals, Nichols said. Christ Central serves unhoused South Carolinians throughout the state.
More than 20 St. Andrew’s members helped set up the center Saturday morning and began serving at 11:30 a.m. At each stop in the serving line, the patrons were usually greeted by more than one St. Andrew’s member.
“They seem very thankful,” said Evie Casey, 13, who helped serve deserts. “Whenever we hand them something, they’re like, ‘Thank you so much. We appreciate it.’”
The St. Andrew’s volunteers ranged in age from 10-year-old Shane Casey and Keith Peterson to senior adults.
In addition to providing meals, St. Andrew’s also distributed blankets and winter clothes collected from church members. “It’s helping the less fortunate, and it makes me feel good and I can see that it makes them feel good,” said Whanna Bouknight, who helped hand out the blankets and clothes.
Bouknight also brought her granddaughter Reagan – who helped serve food –“to teach her to give back to the less fortunate.”
St. Andrew’s also handed out 40 snack packs filled with items left over from a previous church ministry effort at
H.B. Rhame Elementary School.
After the patrons were served at Christ Central, a group of St. Andrew’s members took the remaining food to Walter’s Residential Care, a center of unhoused men the church has adopted. There, 35 people were served, meaning nearly 200 people ate lunch on Nov. 8 thanks to St. Andrew’s.
The average cost per meal for all 200? $3.
Nichols, of Resurrections, believes the cost and time spent is invaluable.
It’s possible members of Resurrections, St. Andrew’s and the other volunteers walk away from the meals with nothing “tangible” to show for their work. “But we may have created some smiles, we may have created some comfort in the moment, and we’ve fed and nourished the body,” he said.“And maybe even the spirit.”
