Sharing is caring and giving is kindness

On March 4, the First Presbyterian Church of Saratoga hosted a it’s weekly gathering at the table. The special gathering is all about meeting new friends and sharing kindness with everyone in the Platte Valley Community.

Gather at the Table takes place on the first Monday of each month and everyone in the community is welcome to join. It is a good way to help people who need a friend or are simply looking for good companionship.

Volunteers were cooking free meals for everyone who participated in this special community gathering. Dick Perue, one of the people who hosted this event, said it is all about making friends and reaching out to the community.

“We plan this event as a way of gathering folks together and giving free meals with fun and good fellowship,” Perue said. “It is part of our mission in the community to bring people together and give thanks during the winter time.”

Perue credits church members Herman and Becky Strickland, who planned this event. Gather at the Table is in its third year and since then people around the community have come together to make new friends and share a special time with everyone.

Becky Strickland, the church cook at Gather at the Table said this idea all started when she and her husband, Herman, moved from their home state of North Carolina. “My husband and I are from North Carolina and there was an event at our old church called Share the Table,” Stickland said. “When we moved to Saratoga we became members at First Presbyterian Church and we started Gather at The Table.”

Strickland said cooking is part of her Southern roots and it is part of a great family tradition that she enjoys doing. Most importantly, she enjoys sharing food with everyone.

“My background in cooking came from my paternal grandmother who is an Italian lady,” Strickland said. “My mother is a Southern cook but I also have been blessed to have friends that are in the industry of cooking. I have two friends who are Chinese back home who own a buffet bar. I have learned from them. I also have a friend who is French and I also have Mexican friends who also taught me their culture of cooking.”

Strickland said that cooking is a great family tradition in the South. She said people from the south love to feed people as a way of giving and sharing kindness. Stickland and her husband are hoping that this event will continue to grow and will continue as a church tradition.

The next Gather at The Table event will take place on Monday April 1.