Living Bread Soup Kitchen to host 16th Annual Silent Auction and Vendor Show
The Living Bread Soup Kitchen wants to keep the community fed, and one of the best ways to ensure they have the money to do so is to host fundraisers.
This Saturday, the organization will be hosting its biggest fundraiser of the year, the 16th Annual Silent Auction and Vendor Show, at the Center for Rural Development.
It will take place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and admission is free.
Visitors will have the opportunity to bid for one of around 75 items that will be on hand for the silent auction.
Gina Gaylor, Living Bread Soup Kitchen's director, said that around half of the items will be from local businesses, and half will be online or tickets to attractions from surrounding areas, such as Tennessee or Ohio.
The auction will end at 3 p.m. sharp, she said, and will require the person with the winning bid to be present.
In addition to the auction, there are 120 booths sold for vendors, which Gaylor said was pretty much the capacity of their space.
'We will take more (vendors), and we will move the auction out into the hall if we get more,' she said. 'That's what we did last year and it worked out really well.'
The event will also feature a Cake Walk and a Jail and Bail for extra excitement.
Gaylor said that the Pulaski County Detention Center is providing their mini-jail for the event, and they will have Jeffery Conard as their 'arresting officer.'
'Most of the things we do will be $1, $2 or for a donation, because we want everyone to be able to participate and still make a little money,' she said.
All of the money raised will go to help their program, which provides meals for those in need.
They operate out of an old 321 South Maple Street, right next door to the South Maple Street First Baptist Church.
Meals are served every Tuesday and Thursday, from 3 p.m. until the last meal is given away.
In addition, Gaylor said the organization recently expanded their operations, so that once a month meals are given away at three satellite locations: Nancy, Jabez and Faubush.
Gaylor said they partner with the local fire departments in those areas, and it is aimed at giving away meals for the people specifically in those areas, as it can be hard for them to come all the way to Somerset, she said.
'They're doing so good, and if it keeps up, (the teams) want to do more,' she said.
In addition to this weekend's fundraiser, Gaylor said the soup kitchen will host a Fish Fry fundraiser on June 27, in which they will serve meals of fried fish, hushpuppies, coleslaw, baked beans and 'some kind of potato,' along with their 'famous fudge.'
Those meals will be available for $15. The organization will have more information on that event as it gets closer to time.
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Hundreds of people attended the event that started in 1992, the year voters first elected Clyburn to the 6th Congressional District, as a thank you to the voters who couldn't afford the Democratic Party's high-dollar fundraisers. Over time, the 'World Famous Annual Fish Fry' — which includes free food and drinks — has become a must-attend event for Democrats seeking local, statewide and national office. This year was no different, even if Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz — Kamala Harris' 2024 running mate — said they're not running for the 2028 nomination. 'I know I'm not running,' Moore told reporters Friday. 'But the thing I'm also very clear about is that anyone who's talking about 2028 is not taking 2025 very seriously.' Moore and Walz, as well as Clyburn and former Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison of Columbia, emphasized the importance of focusing on what's happening now in Washington, D.C. Proposed cuts to government safety nets like Medicaid and billionaire Elon Musk's efforts to rapidly slash federal spending were among the topics the governors touched on Friday during speeches at the fish fry, as well as the Blue Palmetto Fundraising Dinner the same night. 'I taught school long enough to know it's because they're weak and they're bullies, and when you stand up to them, they fade away,' said Walz, a former high school geography teacher. While both declined that they're running for president, there's wide speculation otherwise. Their addresses at the events in South Carolina — which last year got promoted from holding the Democratic Party's first-in-the-South to first-in-the-nation presidential primary — sounded a lot like campaign speeches. Walz will also speak Saturday at the state Democratic Party's annual convention. Lucy Owens, an Anderson County delegate to the state convention, discounted the governors' refusals, saying the 2028 presidential campaign has clearly begun. 'They're all going to come through here. They're the first ones,' she said. In 2019, the fish fry drew more than 20 potential candidates hoping to appeal to South Carolina Democrats. The following year, Joe Biden won the South Carolina Democratic primary, a victory that ended up vaulting him to the presidency. South Carolina's primary was elevated for 2024 as Biden's thank you to the state. With Biden gone, the Democratic party in flux, and Harrison no longer leading the national party, South Carolina maintaining its first-in-the-nation status is in question. Clyburn's comments Friday suggest he knows it won't. He doesn't care if the state is first, just that it's early, he said. 'The most important hitter on a team is the cleanup hitter. He comes in fourth place,' Clyburn told reporters at his event. 'I'm not concerned about whether or not we're first, second, third. Please, let us be at least four,' he said. That would take South Carolina back to having the first primary in the South. In the aftermath of Trump's landslide victory and the Republican Party gaining control of both chambers of Congress, the Democratic Party is in a reset. Walz and Moore, the first Black governor in Maryland's history, are among the early faces of it. Winning South Carolina, which changed the trajectory of Biden's 2020 presidential run, will be crucial for Democratic hopefuls. Owens, the Anderson County delegate, pointed to the stage where Walz and Moore spoke, saying every Democrat who wants to be president will eventually appear in that exact spot. 'They got to come through here. Not South Carolina. They got to go right there,' she said. Both governors received raucous ovations from South Carolina Democrats, drawing cheers, standing ovations and even a few laughs as they took shots at the GOP. Owens said 'they're both very great candidates,' and she's 'excited' to hear more from them over the coming years. That was the general consensus from attendees who spoke with the SC Daily Gazette. However, they were significantly more familiar with Walz because of his time on the campaign trail last year with Vice President Harris. 'I know less about Wes Moore than I do about Tim Walz, but I think he's a good speaker,' said Laura Lowery, a 69-year-old from Fountain Inn. 'I think he's done a good job in his state as well.' Moore has recently come under fire for vetoing a bill that would establish a commission to examine state and federal policies from 1877 to 1965 and come up with recommendations for reparations. South Carolina Rep. John King, D-Rock Hill, asked the state party to remove Moore as the keynote speaker of Friday's Blue Palmetto Dinner. Party leaders never responded to questions about that request. But for at least some attendees, the veto perturbed them too. 'I didn't understand why he would do that,' said Tony Winbush of Anderson. But once Winbush, a 50-year-old Army veteran, heard Moore speak about his time in the Army, as well as his pardoning of 175,000 cannabis convictions, her opinion changed. 'I think when you don't know the whole story and you just listen to sound bites, which is what we do a lot, we'll make brash judgments about people, when we are really fighting the same fight,' she said.
