The feeling one gets from helping others is hard to describe. It's like having your belly filled with warm food, under a welcoming roof engulfed in fellowship.

Although the weekly meals at St. Luke's United Church of Christ (UCC) are not evangelistic, the church serves food that's good for the soul. The church's members call the meal "Lunch with Luke," and everyone involved gets more out of it than they put into it.

St. Luke's UCC, 222 N. Broad St., Lititz, serves a free lunch every Wednesday from noon to 1 p.m. in its social hall and has been doing so for the better part of the last 14 years. Over that time, members of St. Luke's have served an estimated 300,000 meals, with a spoon in their hands, a smile on their faces and love in their hearts.

"I feel great when someone says, 'This was so good,'" said Linda Bushong, the director of Lunch with Luke. "I enjoy this. It's a mission of the church. I think this program has been blessed. Every time it seems we have a need, it gets filled."

Each meal served at Lunch with Luke is nutritionally balanced, featuring an entree, a vegetable, salad, fruit, bread, dessert, coffee and water. The meal program is operated by around 16 volunteers, who cook, serve and clean up.

The meal typically serves 60 to70 residents of Lititz and surrounding areas, no questions asked.

"They're people from the community," said Bushong. "We do have people who come here who are obviously in need of a meal, but I think a lot of them are looking for fellowship, and we provide a place where they can feel safe. Every week, we can interact with them, and it's blessings on each end. It's worked out really well."

Lunch with Luke is funded through grants and donations. Bushong characterized the program as "pretty self-sufficient" and said that it is not figured in as part of St. Luke's overall operating budget.

"It's free and it's welcoming," said Bushong. "And if someone comes to us with some sort of need, we can help them fill it. Sometimes they'll want to talk to the pastor."

St. Luke's Wednesday meal program operates independently and is not officially associated with the Lancaster Community Meal Program, a loose collection of organizations and churches that provides three free meals every day at various sites across the county.

"It started from the thought of one individual, 'We could start a free meal program,'" said Bushong. "It just went from there and didn't stop. We brought forth a mission and it just happened. There wasn't a lot of planning."

The church began its Lunch with Luke program in 2009 and served four people at its first meal. The program was not held for two years during the pandemic.

For additional information about Lunch with Luke, go to http://www.stlukesucc.com.