GIBSON — Members of St. John’s United Methodist Church and volunteers pitched in this week to help prepare food for the church’s 83nd Annual Harvest Day.
The event planned for Thursday will include barbecue and chicken salad plates sold from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Plates are $8 each for eat in or carry out and drive through service will be avaliable.
Barbecue plates will include sides of cole slaw, hush puppies, sweet potatoes, and cake.
Chicken salad plates will come with lettuce, an apple ring, bread, crackers chips and dessert. Tea, water and coffee will also be available.
For Jane Hinson along with her sister Kathy Murphy, who has helped in running the Harvest Day event for about 15 years, keeping a list of what’s needed for shopping is her main priority.
“My favorite aspect of Harvest Day is that we get to visit and have a good time — the church seems more like a family,” Murphy said.
Hinson said that each year, the money received at the annual event goes toward the maintenance and up-keeping of the church.
“There is a good fellowship here and we have fun,” said Thomas McKay, a member of the church and Gibson Fire Department chief, after he finished boiling hundreds of sweet potatoes.
What sets this event apart from other churches plate sales is “the long tradition and how long it has been going on,” McKay said.
The event started when farmers would donate a certain number of their crops, a pig or chickens to the church to prepare and raise money by selling plates. Although the event is now largely carried on by church members pledging to purchase a certain amount of meat and vegetables, the spirit of its founding lives on.
“My mother made the chicken salad for years so I have continued were she left off,” said Karen Jenkins, a life long member of the church. “The duties of Harvest Day are passed down.”
Hinson and fellow church members have been in charge of preparing batches of sweet potatoes for this year’s plates.
This included peeling the sweet potatoes fresh out of the boiler, slicing them up and letting them soak in a homemade syrup. From there the potatoes were frozen and then cooked again for Thursday and covered in more syrup.
The sweet potatoes were donated this year by Carmichael Farms and on Monday church members boiled and peeled approximately 600 pounds of them.
All of the food that isn’t sold will be saved for a welcome table dinner which the St. Johns United Methodist Church puts on every second Tuesday of the month.
The event is free for all and the church welcomes those in need to enjoy a homemade meal as well as members of the church and anyone else how would like to come for dinner,” according to Hinson.
St. John United Methodist Church is located at 7700 Gibson Road, off N.C. 79.
