DEXTER – For people having a difficult time stretching their meager earnings, a hearty meal and a smile are being offered from noon to 2 p.m. every Sunday by Our Ladies Kitchen at St. Anne’s Parish Center on Free Street.

This Sunday, oven-fried chicken, mashed potatoes, vegetables, bread, dessert, coffee and milk will await diners whose budgets have been outstripped by rising home heating oil and gasoline prices. Donations will be accepted but are not necessary. No reservations are required.

“We know that the home fuel and gas prices, et cetera, are killing a lot of people and we know that there are a lot of children that eat their meals at school because they are free or reduced but they don’t have meals on weekends,” Kathie Lombard of St. Albans said Thursday.

“Back in November, I became aware that there was a great deal of hunger in this area and it wasn’t being addressed,” Lombard said.

“I thought we needed to do something and the very same day I had those thoughts, I went to a meeting at my parish and a man at the meeting was having the very same thought on the very same day.”

Lombard said she and the man, Woody Livingston of Dexter, started talking about the need. Before they knew it, they had organized a committee of eight. After months of preparing and filing the necessary documents, they found themselves in business.

Everyone including the elderly and the lonely from Milo to Pittsfield, in between and beyond, is invited to attend, she said. ‘We would never turn anyone away.”

It is hoped that this week people will come to the church and enjoy the hot meal.

“We want these people to have some sense of community, that they are welcome to come,” Lombard said.

For information, contact Lombard at 938-3307 or Livingston at 924-3809.