SUMTER, S.C. — Five hundred people are getting a hot meal for free tonight in Sumter. A local restaurateur is working with a handful of volunteers to serve the community ahead of Thanksgiving.
“It sets a precedent just to be honest that I wish the whole community would grab ahold of,” Neil DuBose says about why he’s helping out his community by volunteering to pass out plates of food at Country Boy Kitchen, run by his friend Jeffrey Lampkin.
“It’s so many people out there, you know, that during the holiday season, they just don't have the resources,” Lampkin shares. “And while you know you're dealing with inflation and prices and just different things, it's just like we want to make sure that everybody has the ability or the opportunity to grab a warm meal during the holiday season but not only that, to get some positivity and some love because the world and things that are going on right now, it can just kind of make you feel like there's no hope, but we want to remind people that there's still hope.”
Lampkin says putting together this annual “Prayer, Plates and Positivity” event takes a lot of helping hands.
“We got the people to run the traffic, you got people to run the plates, you got the people to fix the plates. It’s like you need hands everywhere. I can't do it alone. So I'm grateful for the help of the people who want to make sure that we're giving back to the community,” Lampkin shares. “I have volunteers. I have the employees working. I have people who formerly used to work for me who've gone on and they call me literally over the past few days and was like, ‘Hey, I'm coming to help today.”
For people like DuBose, who works as a youth pastor and serves with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, it’s also a way to spread his faith.
“I mean, that's the reason you do this. It's not for any selfish motive other than others to see that we're here to serve. I mean that’s even why Jesus came. We're just here to serve and when you give back to the community, you can't go wrong that way,” DuBose smiles. “I think that society now is looking for any kind of hope, any kind of good works, any kind of positive stuff. There's too much negativity anyway. So to see someone serving and someone giving back even during this time, it is the one time of year people will just stop and just say, ‘Hey, thank you.’ And that's encouraging in and of itself, to see more and more people gathering together.”
“Community is about unity. It's about making sure that you're coming together,” Lampkin adds. “So there are people out there who are still saying, ‘You know what? I don't want anything but just to be a blessing because you're being a blessing.’ So I'm grateful. So it's just a band of volunteers that are all coming together to say, ‘Hey, let's make this happen. Let's give back to the community the best way we can.”
For people like DuBose, they’re hoping this will make a lasting impact.
“Everybody's grateful this time of year, but I hope that this will last all year and not just during Thanksgiving time,” DuBose says.
“I just want to encourage everyone to be a blessing. No matter how big or how small, oftentimes we think that everything has to be gigantic and big,” Lampkin encourages. “Take the little that you have and bless someone. If it's only 25 cents, if it's only $1, split that in half…because there's somebody out there who needs it, somebody who just needs a smile and your action can be the thing that brightens their day.”
Volunteers began passing out food at 5 p.m. Tuesday and continued until all 500 plates were passed out.
