A small church is trying to make a big difference in the community. The Lacombe Church of the Nazarene has been hosting monthly community suppers to discuss prevalent issues in the community.

“We’re a small church here in Lacombe, so, we wanted to become a benefit to our community. Starting in October we began to provide a free community supper with an information session on relevant community topics,” explained Tom Samaroden, an organizer of the event.

In October, the topic was based on homelessness and poverty where the church hosted a worker from the Mustard Seed to speak about poverty in the area.

“It was a good response, people seemed to be informed of the issue. They didn’t know about poverty here in Central Alberta,” said Samaroden.

The suppers have been organized to inform the public but also to provide the resources to deal with anyone experiencing homelessness or poverty or the other topics that will be discussed at upcoming suppers.

The church will be going through a variety of hard-hitting and often troubling content. For November, the issue will be based on domestic violence just in time for domestic violence awareness month.

“Sometimes people feel powerless in these sorts of situations if they know about someone experiencing poverty or experiencing domestic violence. We’re hoping that these community suppers can be informative for people as a way to give them opportunities and kind of empower them to take the next step if they feel like it is something that they want to become involved with,” explained Samaroden.

The community suppers are completely open to the public. The suppers are not intended to influence anyone’s particular beliefs or opinions and are only meant to inform the community about current issues. The next community supper will be on November 27th from 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM.