Another milestone for The Lord’s Diner

The Lord’s Diner has become an oasis in a Derby food desert.

Emily Thome, director of The Lord’s Diner, said Diner volunteers and employees celebrated serving their 20,000th meal at the Oaklawn Activity Center in Derby Tuesday evening, Oct. 22.

“We celebrated 20,000 meals,” she said last week, “but my message was that it was 20,000 times somebody didn’t have to go to bed hungry, 20,000 times we got to reach into their car with a meal and reach into their hearts to give them hope and love and show them that somebody cares.”

Thome said it was also 20,000 times the volunteers were able to experience the reciprocal love from those receiving the meals.

New ministry to the hungry

The Oaklawn outreach is relatively new for the ministry to the hungry, she said. The Diner was approached years ago by the Derby Recreation Center to support the neighborhood that had been identified as a food desert. Plans by now-retired Diner director Jan Haberly to address the need there were postponed because of the Covid pandemic.

“So when I came on, my first goal was to get us back to serving like we did pre-Covid,” Thome said. During the pandemic, guests were served to-go meals and weren’t allowed into the dining room.

After about a year into her tenure, she said, the Oaklawn community requested a Diner food truck.

Thome explained that The Diner wouldn’t be able to add another food truck but instead suggested they deliver food cooked at Wichita’s downtown Diner location to the Oaklawn Activity Center, which has a kitchen. The food is placed in to-go containers at the Oaklawn Activity Center and given to those who drive up.

A solution is found

“So, The Lord’s Diner provides the food, just like a food truck, Monday through Friday,” she said. “And they serve from 5 to 6 p.m.”

The Diner provides the food and the Derby Recreation Commission, through the Oaklawn Activity Center, provides one staff member and four to six volunteers a night to serve the food.

“This started on our (The Lord’s Diner’s) 22nd anniversary, Feb. 13, 2024, and it has gone very, very well,” Thome said. “We serve right around 100 to 150 guests a day, and we hit 20,000 meals. So we’re super excited.”

She added that because it costs The Lord’s Diner about $1 per meal and it might cost up to $5 to $10 a meal for Oaklawn residents to duplicate the meal “we infused $100,000 to $200,000 back into that little community where those people could pay rent, pay for medical bills, and pay for utilities. We’re super proud of that.”