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WEST POINT — J. Smith Lanier II Park in downtown West Point was a very busy place during the noon hour on Saturday. Two events were taking place at the same time. At the corner of West 3rd Avenue and West 7th Street, members of Reed’s Chapel Baptist Church were cooking enough barbecue for 500 sandwiches, and in the shady area near the parking lot Fred and Judy Pruitt were hosting their monthly cruise in.

In the spring of 2021, members of Reed’s Chapel had a celebration of getting past Covid by having a free lunch day. They prepared a total of 230 sack lunches each with a barbecue sandwich and chips. They set up on the corner of West 3rd and West 7th and gave them away to people coming by that very busy intersection. It went so well that they made 500 sack lunches in 2022 and 500 more for this past Saturday’s free lunch day.

These annual events are organized by Associate Pastor Blake Alford, and lots of Reed’s Chapel members work together to make it a successful event. Some are doing the cooking, some put the barbecue sandwiches together and fill the brown paper bags for the sizable crowd that always stops by. Malachi Ivey’s booming voice can be heard all over town yelling “Free food! Free food!”

Lots of passersby sound their horns when they read the signs that say “Honk if you love Jesus!”

“We started this in 2021 to celebrate the falling off of the Covid pandemic and the opportunity of getting back to normal life,” said Pastor Jeff McCartney. “We want to continue celebrate this and to encourage people to get back and stay involved in the course of everyday life. We’d like to keep doing this once a year in April or May. We are doing this to show that local churches are here to serve. People from our church donate the food we cook and the monetary donations needed to keep this going. We appreciate people coming by to take part in this outreach effort.”

The parking lot was filled with classic cars and impressively restored vehicles. “We want to keep doing this cruise in on the second Saturday of every month,” Judy Pruitt said. “Anyone who wants to show a vehicle they are proud of is welcome to bring it here at no charge. It’s a nice, shady place in the park. We think it’s a good place to show your classic vehicle and relax for a couple of hours.”