One of Hopkinsville’s most stalwart volunteers has been recognized by United Way of the Pennyrile. Donna Williams received the Beverly Whitfield Award at the United Way’s end-of-campaign celebration — where we learned the agency edged above its $700,000 goal, raising $704,291.
The Whitfield award honors the legacy of the former executive director of the Christian County Literacy Council, who died on Sept. 9, 2019.
Williams launched Hopkinsville’s Breaking Bread Community Dinner Church on Christmas Day 2019, when she and several helpers served food to a few dozen people in need. It now provides a meal every Thursday afternoon for 300 or more people at Aaron McNeil House. A retired businesswoman, Williams is also pastor of Christian Heights United Methodist Church.
Although the two women have worked in different areas of need for the community — Whitfield for education, and Williams through the feeding ministry — I think it is interesting that Williams’ work was beginning just as Whitfield’s ended.
Donna Williams would be the first to say she doesn’t prepare and serve all those Thursday afternoon dinners and special holiday meals without a ton of help. Still, it is a heavy load she carries and Williams is always grateful when a new donor or a group comes forward to help serve people who rely on the dinner church for a good meal one day a week.
I’d like to see Hoptown Chronicle and its readers step up to help Williams.
If you want to join us, let’s talk about serving a meal this spring. We’ll need people who can help plan, cook and serve. We’ll need folks who can ask for donations of supplies and who are willing to pitch in to buy supplies.
Please get in touch by emailing me if you or your organization want to participate. The saying that “many hands make light work” will surely apply to this effort.
Watch for an announcement soon in a Hoptown Chronicle newsletter and on our website about a date for a planning meeting. I look forward to working with y’all, and I know Donna Williams is eager to see us get involved.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
