Manage Delivery
The Lord’s Diner is expanding again.
Next April, the diner will begin providing 200 meals daily from a custom-built truck at the Evergreen Recreation Center, near 25th and North Arkansas.
“We are seeing more working poor, particularly in that area,” Jan Haberly, the Lord’s Diner director, said Tuesday.
“They are probably making do. It is a hope in my heart that no one is going to bed hungry, but I don’t think these people have the resources for hot, nutritional meals on a daily basis.”
Haberly said the diner, a ministry of the Catholic Diocese of Wichita, decided two years ago to expand its services to other parts of Wichita. It currently serves a free, evening meal in two locations: Broadway and Central, and at 2825 S. Hillside. Between the two sites, it serves about 600 meals a day.
Evergreen Rec Center was determined the most ideal location based on the number of school children receiving free and reduced lunches and who take home backpacks with food over the weekend.
“We looked at locations where we could park and also areas where there was the most need,” Haberly said.
It will take until April to order the truck and have it converted into a mobile feeding unit, Haberly said. Once the meals begin, people will have the option of eating at the Evergreen Center or taking the meals home.
Final costs have yet to be determined for the expansion. But Haberly said she’s not worried about raising the money.
“We have donors behind us to make sure we fulfill our mission,” she said.
