ELKINS — The First United Methodist Church’s Lunch With Neighbors program will be adding extra days and times to its already busy schedule during the Mountain State Forest Festival next week.

Throughout the year, Lunch With Neighbors serves free meals each Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 12:30-1:30 p.m. in the First United Methodist Church’s Family Life Center.

The schedule for MSFF week will be the same on Monday and Tuesday, but will differ on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, when the organization will be serving up food from 11 a.m. until 7 p.m. A dining area will be set up on Fourth Street beside the First United Methodist Church

There will be no charge for food, but the church is asking for donations from those attending. All of the proceeds will go back into the program, which is becoming more difficult to run, Lunch With Neighbors co-director Diana Johnson said.

“We are asking for donations for the food, because this is a fundraiser for us,” Johnson said. “We don’t make people give donations, but anything they can do to help out the program is appreciated. There were some federal grants that we wanted that were no longer available this year and we didn’t get the help from the state that we have gotten before. And our USDA food we were receiving has also been cut.”

A special menu, consisting of BBQ pork sandwichs, baked beans, cole slaw, chili dogs, walking tacos, and tater tots will be served Thursday through Saturday.

“All of the food on our menu for those three days is really good and people can make it into a platter if they want,” Johnson said. “We are doing our regular days next week, but they will be inside. Then on Thursday we will start serving outside as part of the Forest Festival.”

The Lunch With Neighbors program at the First United Methodist Church started back in 2021. Johnson said the program has served close to 600 meals per week during the past year.

“The need is definitely greater for our program than it was just last year,” Johnson said. “We had more new people than we probably ever had at this week’s lunch on Monday. There’s a lot more homeless right now than there has been.”

For more information, or to make a donation to the Lunch With Neighbors program, contact the United Methodist Church at 304-636-0660.