The aroma of green beans, cabbage and chicken filled John Wesley AMC Zion Church on Saturday. From the basement where the food was cooking, to outside where it wafted into the air, that aroma drew in people from the surrounding area to taste something different.
The food was part of the soul food dinner that has been going on at the church once a year for about 10 years.
Rev. Allie Harper Jr, who has been assigned to the church for the last 6 years, said that the dinner is something that the church does because it integrates the social life of the church with education about African-American roots.
Soul food, he said, came around because of how the African-American culture in the past survived on scraps while in slavery.
"Schools
Good to go: Don Riley takes home dinners from the soul food fundraiser at AME Zion Church in Chambersburg on Saturday. (Public Opinion/Ryan Blackwell)
don't focus a lot on African-American history," he said. "And food is part of our history."Offered that afternoon was pig's feet, something that Harper said, are at the roots of soul food.
"Back then, they would go to the packing plants and get whatever they could," Harper said.
Vicki Rideout, the secretary treasurer of Women's Home and Oversees Missionary Society (WHOMS), which works closely with the church, was one of many volunteers helping to serve the 4 meats, 10 sides and dessert that the dinner offered for a price of $12.
Also among the food served that afternoon were collard greens, turnips, macaroni and cheese, sweet potatoes, fried chicken and black-eyed peas. However, Rideout said, the pig's feet are definitely the most popular.
"People come just for the pig's feet every year," Rideout said.
All the money raised from the event goes back to the community, she said, by the church sponsoring free dinners and giving out Christmas baskets. "We're a small group, but we hope we can do mighty things," she said.
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Lauren Cappuccio can be contacted at lcappuccio@publicopinionnews.com and 262-4754.
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