ELKINS — The fourth annual Community Table even is planned on Davis Avenue Tuesday, with 15 local eateries joining the event.

Free to everyone, the Community Table event will see tables and food set up on the blocked-off street from 6 p.m to 8 p.m. Tuesday. Local restaurants and businesses will be coming together to give away soup and bread to the community. In the event of inclement weather, the Community Table celebration will be moved to Wednesday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

“It’s really exciting,” Community Table coordinator Desire Kniffen Watson told The Inter-Mountain. “I can’t stress enough how it’s such a beautiful thing to see this event come together. The very best part of Elkins is the people… To be able to do something that represents our beautiful giving nature, and to see all the local-owned businesses giving back to the community is just beautiful.”

Watson said officials are always hoping for a really good turnout, with last year seeing around 300 members of the community participating.

“This is an event for everybody,” Watson said. “No matter what your age, no matter how much money you make, it’s a community togetherness project… This is really just about bringing people together.”

Restaurants providing soup at the Community Table this year will include:

* Beander’s with zesty potato or ramp potato soup.

* Delmonte with tortellini soup.

* El Gran Sabor with leek soup.

* Clementine’s Cantina with sopa de clementine.

* Smoke on the Water with brisket chili.

* Davis and Elkins College with stuffed potato soup with bacon.

* Alpine Lodge with seafood bisque.

* Smoked BBQ with chicken and dumplings.

* Jimbo’s Place with chili.

* Oxley House with vegetable tortellini soup.

* El Toro with sancocho.

* Chipper’s Bar and Grill with Italian wedding soup.

* Mona’s Eggrolls with chicken arroz caldo with saffron and chicken pancit guisado.

* The Lunch Box with cheddar broccoli soup.

* Gingrollsandpancit with chicken tinola Filipino soup.

Bread for the event will be provided by Great Harvest, Mora Bakery, Sweet Temptations, Elkins Automotive and Smoked BBQ. Drinks are being provided by Legacy Insurance, Northern Eagle, Elkins Automotive, Big Timber Brewing and the First United Methodist Church’s “Lunch with Neighbors” program

Watson said the original concept of the Community Table was inspired by the folk story “Stone Soup.” The idea was to bring community members from all walks of life together during the otherwise cold winter to share soup, bread and stories. However, the Community Table has become more of a spring event due to the unpredictability of the winter weather. After the first year they began holding the event in the spring.

Watson credits her mother, Andrea Kniffen, for providing the vision of this event.

“People tend to give me a lot of credit because I’m the one planning it, but it’s really something that a small town in her home state of upstate New York did, and it was just really something that she wanted to bring to Elkins. If anybody knows Andy, she’s always giving. No matter what she does, she’s always doing for the community. So, I think that whole, ‘everybody gives a little and it turns into a lot’ just resonates with her. She taught it forward.”