Tuesday Lunch (of old...)

For 15 years we have hosted a lunch each Tuesday.  This started with 30 students sitting around a few Stauffer’s lasagnas in a house on Oak Street.  15 years later we were regularly, with the help of local churches, serving 200-250 students a week in our Hub Space.

The initial vision for Tuesday Lunch was manifold:

  1. •Connecting with our core students in a laid back atmosphere.

  2. •Creating a non-threatening space for students to invite people outside of Christian community.

  3. •Connecting churches with students while providing a practical way for churches to serve students.

  4. •Helping the cliques of friends within the House to create new and open communities.


We also were hoping to provide some great, home-cooked food at a cheap price, but this was merely the means to the ends.

As we have grown, Tuesday Lunch has excelled in providing cheap food for students and allowing churches to help in this.    All of our goals for Tuesday Lunch, however, were very hard to see taking shape.  Tuesdays were frantic and busy.  There were so many students that most would stick with their close friends.  Few people were introduced to new community.  No students were getting involved in churches because of lunch. 

Tuesday Lunch was good... but it was not great.

If there were no cost in this, it would not be a big deal.  But the cost is tremendous. 

Tuesday Lunch is cheap for students, but it is not for our staff and supporters.  Annually, Tuesday Lunch can cost over $20,000 and over 750 man hours of labor for our staff.  None of this is taking into account the work churches are doing to prepare and cook and bring the food.

Our hope in cancelling Tuesday Lunch is to stop, be refreshed, and reconsider how we might achieve our goals in a more effective and fruitful way.

We are hoping we can find ways for churches to come along side students with meals.  We want to create non-threatening environments for our students invite people into.  We want to help community grow and develop.  We want to eat.

Food is a part of who we are.  We are southerners and we are Christians; food is like breathing to us.  We will continue to find ways for community to develop around food, but we feel strongly that we need to let this die in order that other things might live.

Please share with us your thoughts and concerns as we discern what is next.  Please pray for us and share your ideas about how we can further our mission to bring college students to a deeper knowledge and love of Jesus Christ.

An Open Letter from David Burke

To the students, faculty, and staff of UTC:

Sadly, we have decided to not continue serving lunch next semester.  We have been providing this lunch as a ministry to the campus for over 15 years.  It has grown from 25-30 students in a living room on Oak Street, to now serving 200-250 people here at First Christian Church.  The original vision for Tuesday lunch was to give staff and students a place to eat together in an informal atmosphere, as well as invite new students to discover what The House is about.  Along with this, we hoped that people from local churches would connect with students as they served them. 

Each Tuesday, in what often becomes a 14 hour day, our staff goes from running a restaurant for several hours to setting up a church service for several hours.  We simply do not have the resources to continue providing the lunch.  While we do have a group of churches that partner with us in doing this, it has become harder and harder to find groups willing to consistently cook for over 200 people.  We are exhausted!  And we feel that we have to make a hard decision to give up something that we see is good.

In addition, our finances here at The House are in a difficult place. We have loved being able to provide the lunch as a service to the university community, but in order to keep items stocked and equipment maintained, Tuesday lunch has become a larger and larger item in our budget each year.

We are sorry we won’t be able to provide this any longer.  But we hope you know that The Hub (this space here at First Christian Church) will continue to stay open, and invite you to come here in between classes to find a place of rest.  As always, you can still come and eat your lunch, or cook something up here.

This is a very difficult decision for us.  We hope you understand.

Sincerely,


Rev. David J. Burke, Director