POLSON — After attendance at free Friday community dinners around Polson ballooned this year, the hunt was on to organize another meal option to help cover the growing needs of anyone struggling to make ends meet.

What came to be is an ambitious project that offers free, homemade lunches four days a week. It is fueled by abundant generosity and soups made in the journeyBe Wander Inn kitchen each day.

Soups On offers free soup, bread, pie, coffee and tea from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays at journeyBe, 101 7th Ave. West in Polson.

The journeyBe pastor John Payne organized the free Friday dinner, Friendship Table, four years ago. It began with a small group attending and has recently grown to include 70-80 people.

Three other Polson churches also host dinners on alternating Fridays.

John saw the need expand drastically in recent months. Polson’s lack of a homeless shelter doesn’t mean there wasn’t that need in the community, especially in tough economic times, he said.

John credits Sandy Farrell as coming up with the idea for the lunches.

Farrell used examples from several other organizations around the country in a hunt to perfect the way to pull it off. They wanted to provide an option that steered away from the “soup kitchen stigma” and create an open-to-all, self-sustaining project.

Things are off to a good start.

In its first four days of service, the meal saw about 15 patrons.

Sharon Payne, John’s wife, is a key volunteer who has helped get the lunches off the ground. She’s there to greet anyone and everyone who walks in the door to enjoy lunch. She’s helped prepare most meals so far as well.

“There’s been lots of people who have contacted us and been willing to help,” Farrell said. “It’s really heartening.”

For the first three days, volunteers, mainly Sharon and Farrell, have began as early as 6 a.m. to begin preparing for the lunch.

Two pots of homemade soup will be served. Last Thursday, Sharon made beef barley soup. Another donation of a crock of chili was there as well.

The bread selection is baked or supplied by a partnership with the Loaves and Fishes Food Bank.

St. Joseph Medical Center’s volunteer group AIM will begin bringing food donations in January.

The pie for the day was a pumpkin, made from scratch or apple, made with donated organic apples.

Donations of locally-grown vegetables have begun to trickle in, Farrell said, and she hopes to establish a cycle where the meals come from only area fare.

A beef donation came in recently, too.

“We want all the food to come from as close from the community as possible,” she said. “We’re just stepping forward from there.”

John knows that on a tight budget, it can be hard for families to afford things like fruits and vegetables, and one of the holes a service like Soups On! fills is providing a healthy meal in a welcoming place.

The meals will continue indefinitely through the winter and into summer. Farrell is excited about the possibilities that will come with more seasonal fruits and vegetables.

A volunteer meeting last Friday was held to organize the large group of people who want to help make sure Soups On continues.

John said the community dinner that began four years ago now pays for itself. He hopes to bring that momentum to the lunches as well.

John’s also planning on helping to bring more services to the community. Sitting in the kitchen and seating area at journeyBe, he gestures to the space already filled with couches, TVs and space for students to study. There’s WIFI available, too.

“We hope sometime in the future to just have books, and people can come to drink coffee all day,” he said.

From a warm, hearty meal, many good things can come.