Sharing a meal, breaking bread, is one way to bring a community together. On October 19, Rexing Butcher Shoppe in Johnson, Indiana, along with the Gibson Southern FFA hosted the Farm to Table Harvest Dinner at Fort Branch Community Park. This consisted of a free dinner to raise money for the South Gibson School Corporation’s lunch program.
The Harvest Fundraising Dinner has occurred before, but this was one of the first times that FFA has been included in putting it together.
During the dinner, there were activities for everyone who decided to stop by. FFA arranged pumpkin paintings, fall family photo opportunities, giveaways and live music by Brooks Werner.
This dinner was a good time for all the people in the community to get together with friends and family and enjoy some good food.
“It was a lot of fun getting to hang with my friends,” Gibson Southern sophomore Audrey Spindler said.
Many Gibson Southern FFA students dedicated their time to put this dinner together for the community, one of which was senior Aleah Rexing.
Rexing has been in FFA for three years, joining in her sophomore year of high school. As a senior, Rexing is the president of FFA and the former chaplain.
Though this dinner only lasted a few hours, a lot of preparation and planning had to happen before it could take place.
“Three months worth, lots and lots of preparation and organizing from businesses and donors,” Rexing said. “Lots of people [working] behind the scenes.”
While the dinner took a lot of helping hands, it ended up bringing in lots of people from the community to enjoy the feast.
“We had 20 members help with this event,” Rexing said. “Three hundred people attended.”
Although most of the FFA members were inside, away from the community, they could imagine how many people were outside, enjoying the dinner.
“I was wrapping burgers, and I know we just kept wrapping and wrapping,” senior FFA member MacKenzie Stucky said. “It felt like it was going on forever.”
All the food was donated by Rexing Butcher Shoppe. Even though this dinner was put together to raise money, people could eat all they wanted for free.
“It was donation based,” Stuckey said. “So, you could put like five dollars in, then eat two plates.”
With so many people there and making free-will donations for the dinner, the FFA managed to raise over half of the $12,000 lunch debt while also filling people’s stomachs.
“It brings in a good community aspect, and it helps benefit the school,” Stuckey said.
Paying off the lunch debt is a great benefit to Gibson Southern, and will continue to help as the years go on.
According to the corporation’s food service director, Emily Hansen, South Gibson School Corporation’s total lunch debt from all four schools is $12,554.
When people and organizations raise money for the lunch program, the managers get together to find families that most need help with accrued lunch debt.
Some families just forget to pay off their debt and might not truly need help with money. Although, sometimes tragedies occur and families do not have the support or stability to pay the cost. In those cases, the lunch ladies will decide to help them with the costs.
Dinners like this, that serve a greater good, show how strong the South Gibson community is
“It not only gets the community together,” Rexing said. “But [helps] for a great cause that everyone supports!”
