23-05-2025
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.
