MORE THAN A MEAL
More Than A Meal (MTAM) is a free, hot, sit-down-and-be-served dinner for anyone who needs it, offered each Thursday at Idlewild Presbyterian Church, 1750 Union Avenue in Midtown Memphis, Tennessee. Whether you are in need of a meal or would like to visit with our guests or help with the meal, you are always welcome. Please join us!
MTAM Worship Service
Thursdays
5:00 p.m.
Trippeer Chapel
MTAM Dinner
Thursdays
5:30 p.m.
T.K. Young Fellowship Hall
More Than A Meal
In January of 2000 a small group of Idlewild members became part of a grass roots effort to begin a soup kitchen and to help facilitate relationships between church members and members of the greater Midtown community. After four months of study, discussion, and openness to the workings of the Holy Spirit, the group cultivated a vision and set it in motion.
Assuming that relationships foster more long-term healing than the band-aid approach of merely filling empty stomachs, the group articulated the following purposes of More Than A Meal: To provide physical and spiritual nourishment to residents of a nearby boarding house and others who are homeless or receive little income; and to provide Idlewild members with the chance to form relationships of mutual giving and receiving with each other and those they serve.
A typical Thursday evening at MTAM begins when guests join members in setting up tables, and making coffee. Members and guests then sit together at circular tables and are served dinner. Everyone participates in a program which consists of scripture reading, singing, and prayer using written prayer requests of both members and guests. MTAM guests often volunteer to read scripture, make announcements, sing, or recite original poetry. Conversations between strangers occurs in the kitchen as the plates are filled, at the tables during the supper, through the cooperation required in preparing, serving and cleaning, and in the sharing of prayer requests.
Some 100 folks currently attend More Than A Meal each week. Relationships between members and guests are ever-evolving, and over time strangers have grown to know and value one another, to pray with and for one another. These relationships are nothing short of a miracle--they alone are what make Thursday evenings at Idlewild more than just a meal.
Come to More Than A Meal any Thursday evening to serve and get to know our guests. Worship is at 5:00 in the Chapel; dinner and music begin at 5:30 in the T.K. Young Room. Please come and bring your family—you can make a real difference in the lives of God’s people in Midtown Memphis!
More Than Art
Rhodes College students offer their guidance and expertise to lead our weekly More Than Art program. Anyone can come to learn and practice painting, photography, pottery, and other mediums.
More Than Art is often involved with Unsheltered/Unseen, a Rhodes College student project that offers disposable cameras to people on the streets, then showcases photos in art galleries and showings. Visit their website for more details and events.
More Than Reading
A new adult literacy program has been started especially for our community friends.
For information...
For more information about Idlewild's More Than A Meal programs contact Associate Pastor Margaret Burnett, margaret@idlewildchurch.org.