NORWAY — The Stephens Community Health Care Foundation has provided a $10,000 grant to the First Universalist Church for a stove hood that will ensure hundreds of people will continue to receive free lunches each week.

“This was an insurance requirement and ensured that the church could continue to house Community Lunch on Wednesdays as it has for the past 25 years,” Steering Committee member Ellen Gibson said.

The Community Lunch is served weekly at the Main Street church. It’s a project of the Oxford Hills Area Association of Churches. Members work with the Good Shepherd Food-Bank, Hannaford supermarkets and local volunteers who pick up the food, prepare the dinner, serve the patrons and clean up, Gibson said.

Gibson said at the time of the grant award, the church had a bid of $12,000 from a Lewiston company for the installation. It would require a sheet metal chimney to protrude from the opening in the kitchen wall and go up the side of the historic church to the roof, where an exhaust fan would be installed.

After the grant funding was received, Gibson said the church formed a Building Committee and members did not want an unsightly chimney. They were also concerned about blocking the water heater by the hood. Committee members decided to put in a propane system, which allowed the church to move the water heater into a more accessible location, Gibson said.

In her report to the non-profit foundation, which was created in 1999 to provide philanthropic support for the capital needs of Western Maine Health and Stephens Memorial Hospital, Gibson said thousands of meals are served each year at the church. In 2012, that was 7,405; in 2013 it was 7,656.

Gibson said the town provides $600 per year to Community Lunch. Local churches donated $2,045 in 2013, and patrons donated $962. Total expenses in 2013 were $5,251, and total income was $4,152, according to information from Gibson.

The lunch program has run in the black for several years, and has pledged $3,000 to Norway UU Church to continue the kitchen upgrades this year.

Gibson said the Norway UU Capital Campaign, under its Board of Directors and William Stockwell, has raised over $175,000 to date. An additional $2,500 has been received from Walmart for the kitchen and $3,000 from the Area Association of Churches to complete upgrades to the kitchen, Gibson said.

The First Universalist Church of Norway was founded in 1799 and is the oldest continuously existing Universalist church in the state, according to its website. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Downtown National Historic District and was the original location of town meetings in Norway.

ldixon@sunjournal.com

Copy the Story Link