Mission strategies to serve local communities come in many forms. For First Christian Church in Garden City, they believe in going big with one really big fund raiser to connect with their community. That big event takes the form of an annual Navajo Taco dinner where crowds of nearly 1,500 are customarily served each year.
It’s a big project with big results and it takes significant manpower to make it happen. That’s where a committee of 20 organizes the event, and then the whole congregation helps in some way either cooking, serving, or providing drive-up delivery service to make it all happen.
The dinner started to reach the community with a unique theme dinner. The dinner is served on a Saturday at either the end of February or the first part of March each year. The dinner has evolved into a fundraising event for local charities. The organizing committee, which includes about 20 people, decides on the charities every year with the goal of blessing as many local nonprofits as possible.
Along with congregational help, businesses from the community help by donating funds or meat or supplies. Real Men, Real Leaders and City on a Hill have helped on ‘Taco Day’ with food prep and customer service or clean up.
Danny Hoff has been the leader for the past three years, with a committee of about 20 leaders supporting him. The entire church helps in some way to make the event successful. They have had to have a drive-thru only for the last three years, due to COVID, but brag about a 1–3-minute turnaround time for supporters. This year, about 1,400 meals were served in a five-hour timeframe. They were able to give $2,000 each to Real Men, Real Leaders; Finney County Humane Society; Garden City Arts; ABC Pregnancy Care Center; Kansas Honor Flight; City on a Hill; and CASA this past year.
Some of the organizations that FCC has donated to in past years have been: American Legion, Russell Child Development Center, Family Crisis, Miles for Smiles, Seeds of Hope Jail Ministry, Emmaus House, Relay for Life, Habitat for Humanity, Family Missions, Mosaic, H.O.P.E. Puppet Ministry, and others.
This year FCC Garden City celebrated the 24th annual Navajo Taco Dinner. Up until the past three years, it served the community in Fellowship Hall, serving up to 1,800 meals in the 5 hours we are serving. A meal consists of a taco, which covers the plate, dessert, and a drink. Originally the dinner customers had their choice of homemade pie for dessert, but the last couple of years, they have served cinnamon rolls for dessert.
The taco itself consists of homemade Indian fry bread, a special meat/bean mixture, lettuce, tomato, onion, and cheese. Salsa is offered to all who want. A special bread making day is held about a week before the event, where 30+ members mix the bread and make bread balls ready for taco day. They make up to 2,500 balls of bread, which are frozen until needed.
A member of the church designed and had built a special bread press used to press the bread balls ready to fry. The bread is fried on taco day in a fry shack that was designed and built by founding chairman, Gale Frank. It is parked right outside the back of the church and has about 10 propane burners for our iron skillets used to fry the bread.
Taco day begins around 5 a.m. with prayer, bacon, and cinnamon rolls. Dry beans are put on to cook in about 25 roasters the night before under specially installed outlets under the ceiling tiles, ground beef is browned to add to cooked beans, along with spice packets made earlier, bread is pressed, frying begins about 9:30 a.m., being kept warm in the bread warmer in the kitchen, tomatoes are diced, onion is diced, and salsa is portioned out in to-go cups, and pies or cinnamon rolls are put on serving plates or to-go containers.
Volunteers come and go in about 2–3-hour shifts. Start time is 11 a.m. but they usually start serving about 10:30. Service continues until 6 p.m. or until supplies of bread or meat run out. After closing there is at least an hour, to an hour-and-half of clean up time. With leftover bread and meat, FCC has an all-church dinner after church on Sunday. Leftover meat, bread, cheese, other ingredients, and desserts are sold to any member of the congregation at that time.
Interim Minister, Steve Payne, says although he hasn’t been here for taco day, he has known about it and attended in years past. He says not only is it a good meal, but it is also a very good outreach program.
Give-N-Go Pantry, Coat Ministry
Even though the Taco Dinner is the main driver for mission fund raising, FCC GC has other ways the congregation can connect with the communities underprivileged. The Give-N-Go pantry was a dream of the Outreach Committee about three years ago. It came to being a little over a year ago when an old school locker was found. It was painted, a Chalice was added to the front, and it is at home at the front of the church by the education wing doors. The outreach committee keeps it stocked daily with single serving size fruits, veggies, soups, snacks, canned or pouched meats, Bibles, and devotional materials.
Supplies are donated by church members, and some are purchased by the church. Members are good at making donations to the Pantry Fund. Sometimes, as the Outreach Member prepares to stock the pantry, they find it filled with bread, cookies, single-serve meals, and such that an anonymous donor from the community has left. This past Christmas the church held a very successful Reverse Advent program, listing daily items that to be used in the pantry.
The Coat Ministry was begun this past winter when members of the Outreach Committee noticed a need for some of the city’s homeless population. Coats are donated for men, women, and children. They are hung on a portable coat rack and wheeled outside by the pantry in the morning and returned inside in the evening. FCC’s Crafting for God ladies have also made and donated stocking hats to be given away. Members have purchased gloves and men and women’s socks for this ministry. The hats, gloves and socks are placed in Ziploc bags, marked, and hung on the coat rack for anyone in need. Members collect coats all summer from garage sales and cleaned out closets, so there are plenty of coats in stock when winter arrives.
Thinking big means congregational help, but with planning and organization, FCC Garden City finds a way to connect and give as much as possible back to the community.