The 7th Annual Winn Community Feast will be Saturday, Feb. 5th, from 11 AM – 2 PM at the Winnfield Civic Center on the Winn Parish Fair Grounds.
This annual event grew out of the practice developed by Shelia Mitchell of getting a meal together and inviting her neighbors to come to her yard and partake of it along with her, including ministers from the community who might share their wisdom with the people in the yard throughout the day. Over several years, the number of people served in Shelia’s yard grew so that her kitchen and her yard couldn’t contain the event, and she needed more help in preparing the meals.
When Shelia joined with Jane Purser and Mary Lou Blackley to form Caring & Sharing in Unity for our Community Winnfield in 2019, the group began sponsoring what is now known as the Winn Community Feast hosted by Laurel Heights Baptist Church in 2020 and 2021.
This year, through the generosity of the City of Winnfield and its mayor, George Moss, it moves to the Winnfield Civic Center on the Winn Parish Fair Grounds. Places for some to sit and eat in the building will be available, although it is expected most meals will be carry out due to considerations of COVID. The meal is made possible this year largely by Winn Lumber, PriceBevilleSmith and First Assembly Winnfield.
“We do the feast as an expression and celebration of God’s love for every person in the community, and invite any who wants one to come and share a good hot meal. We want everyone in our community to come together, learn to love each other, share their needs and dreams, and work together to help each other,” say the organizers of the meal. “Precautions of temperature monitoring and sanitizing will be taken, and we ask anyone who has COVID or has been recently exposed to send someone else to pick up their meal to go.”
