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Serving Meals and Blessings to Homeless
Karen Curtis of Antioch Christian Church helps feed 100+ visitors of the Lamb Center, a Fairfax homeless ministry
The minivan comes to a stop in one of the few remaining parking spaces outside the Lamb Center in Fairfax. Seatbelts pop and side doors roll open as a handful of members from Antioch Christian Church climb out of the gray-green vehicle to help unload the back.
Three crockpots full of homemade chili and nearly 100 baked potatoes are nestled in the back of the van, all prepared specifically for the homeless people who frequent the Lamb Center—a Christian-based ministry that serves people experiencing homelessness in Fairfax County.“As soon as we come in with these [crockpots] they know [Antioch’s here],” said Karen Holley, volunteer with the outreach program.
Dutifully helping alongside her fellow church members is Karen Curtis, a retired nurse from 34 years of service at Fairfax Hospital who heads up the outreach ministry at Antioch. She has been helping with the ministry for a full year since Food Donation Connection contacted the church asking for help delivering food to the Center.
“It’s definitely her calling,” said Holley. “She’s very good at caring for people. She’s always been like that.”
Curtis has had the desire to help others her entire life, whether that be people or wounded animals she’d find when she was young. “I used to bring birds with broken wings home,” she said. “From the time I knew what a nurse was, I wanted to be a nurse.”
After retirement, Curtis spearheaded the beginning outreach program. While Antioch had previously been involved with the Lamb Center, Curtis wrote a proposal to the church board for a food donation budget.
Much of the donated food comes from the Maple Avenue Outback in Vienna. In the case of Wednesday the 25, Outback’s nearly 100 baked potatoes and two gallons of clam chowder made up over half of Antioch’s food donation.
Outback also provided the church with a hardly-used freezer to store donations.
“We couldn’t do what we’re able to do if it wasn’t for them,” said Curtis.
Curtis also made three crockpots of chili to go with the Outback donations, and Karen Holley, her husband John, and Faith Dougherty prepared loaded baked potato toppings.
“We don’t cheap on this food,” said Curtis. “I fix this food the same way as if somebody was coming to my table and eating my food at home.”
The Lamb Center averages 115 guests a day, according to executive director John MacPherson in a video posted on the Lamb Center’s website.
The Center provides basic needs such as showers, laundry, a clothing closet, medical help, and two hot meals a day to their guests.
In addition to aiding physical needs, the Center also provides for spiritual needs. Each meal is begun with prayer over the food, and guests are invited to attend a Bible study held afterwards to read Scripture and understand key elements of Salvation and Christianity.
For Karen Curtis, helping with lunch for the Lamb Center visitors is a special sort of blessing. “I get just as much out of serving them as they do receiving the nourishment,” she said. “When they come through the lines, they’ve got smiles on their faces. They greet you just as you greet them.”
Her ministry at the Lamb Center is just one of many instances Curtis has shown her compassion for others. When asked why she loves helping those around her, Curtis points to her own faith and calls her passion her “spiritual gift.”
“The Bible tells you that you’re supposed to serve others, just as Christ served us and died for our sins. And God gave us grace. We’re charged to do this.”
