{"id":36844,"date":"2025-09-18T15:19:02","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T19:19:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=36844"},"modified":"2025-09-25T12:49:23","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T16:49:23","slug":"marthas-table-celebrates-20-years-of-feeding-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/marthas-table-celebrates-20-years-of-feeding-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Martha\u2019s Table celebrates 20 years of feeding community"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The smell of a late summer barbecue wafted through the church hall of St. Andrew\u2019s Presbyterian on Wednesday morning as the mighty volunteer team at Martha\u2019s Table served up their weekly community lunch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Always an in-demand community service, last week\u2019s barbecue was special \u2013 not only with the menu of freshly-grilled burgers, but in celebration of 20 years of community service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Week in and year out, bar for a brief summer hiatus, Martha\u2019s Table welcomes everyone for a simple meal of a soup, sandwich and a sweet. It\u2019s a simple formula, but one that has warmed the stomachs and hearts of local families young and old.
Initially an independent program of St. Andrew\u2019s Presbyterian Church launched in 2005, it now operates under the auspices of Welcoming Arms, an ecumenical organization of six community churches that have come together to help address community needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When they first opened their doors for Martha\u2019s Table, they welcomed approximately 15 community members in their first week. By their second, they had 45 guests as word of the meal program made its way around Aurora.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Demand has only grown over the last two decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur original philosophy was we just wanted to feed the community who needed something to eat,\u201d Martha\u2019s Table founder Helen Dawn, who passed away in 2018, told The Auroran on the organization\u2019s tenth anniversary. \u201cIf you are hungry, you don\u2019t live well. If you don\u2019t live well, you don\u2019t add to the community. If we can feed you, then you\u2019ll add to this community of Aurora.
\u201c[Over the years] it has gotten better because now there are more people interacting\u2026.A lot of them are seniors. The pension doesn\u2019t go as far as you think it does, especially if you are a single person. That is just where it is at \u2013 we want to feed people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The philosophy of Martha\u2019s Table has remained a constant since its inception, and these principles were reiterated at last week\u2019s 20th<\/sup> anniversary lunch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just so incredibly grateful we can provide these lunches,\u201d said Sally Freitas, a social worker by trade who now leads Welcoming Arms. \u201cI just want to thank you volunteers from the bottom of my heart. Truthfully, our volunteers at Martha\u2019s Table are absolutely incredible. They are the same group that comes out week after week. The commitment is second to none, and they do all of this on a shoestring. Their budget is incredible, and we just are so thankful for that because it keeps it all sustainable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re so grateful that this provides an opportunity for so many to feel a part of the community, to meet friends, to socialize, and to receive support \u2013 whether it is social support [or] spiritual support.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The celebratory meal not only included sizzing hamburgers, but a variety of side salads prepared and donated by York Region Food Network chef Maxine Knight, and a glittering cake courtesy of Longo\u2019s Aurora.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As guests tucked in, Freitas underscored to The Auroran the importance of weekly meal programs like Martha\u2019s Table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt brings all kinds of folks together,\u201d she said. \u201cIt provides a meeting place, somewhere that they can come and just meet with old friends, make some new friends, feel part of something, because I think a lot of times these folks may feel marginalized. Because it is a free meal and there are no barriers, we don\u2019t ask any questions, anybody who wants to come in can absolutely come in \u2013 and there\u2019s a lot of heart that goes into it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor some folks, this might be one of the best meals they\u2019re going to get in a couple of days. It\u2019s already prepared for them, it\u2019s prepared with love, and there\u2019s something to that! For us, it\u2019s just being able to meet that need \u2013 and you can see there is a need. To be able to meet that need and to be a part of that, I think is huge for us, and that was always our vision.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To help further that vision, Freitas said Welcoming Arms and the programs under its umbrella are always looking for donations \u2013 monetary and otherwise. Happily, they have a strong team of volunteers, but, she adds, they are always looking for new people to join up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis team is tight and they\u2019ve been the same team for years and they\u2019re a well-oiled machine, but obviously all of us are not getting any younger! When someone decides it\u2019s no longer a good fit, I aways love to see if I can bring in younger people, and even getting youth involved.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To see how you might be able to fit in, visit welcomingarms.ca.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The smell of a late summer barbecue wafted through the church hall of St. Andrew\u2019s Presbyterian on Wednesday morning as the mighty volunteer team at Martha\u2019s Table served up their weekly community lunch. Always an in-demand community service, last week\u2019s barbecue was special \u2013 not only with the menu of freshly-grilled burgers, but in celebration […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":36845,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/2025-09-18-03.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-9Ag","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-16 23:09:29","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36844"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36846,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36844\/revisions\/36846"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}