Kentucky Ham Meal.JPG

First Christian Church is once again serving up ham, eggs and piping hot biscuits as it seeks to raise money for missions during its 61st annual Kentucky Ham Meal slated for Tuesday and Wednesday at the downtown church.

“It is a great event with great food and good fellowship, and the money raised goes for a good cause,” said the Rev. Dr. Mark Benson, the church’s senior pastor.

Tickets for the meal are $10 and can be purchased at the door or in advance by calling the church office at 601-693-1425.

The meal will be served in the church’s Fellowship Hall, located at the corner of 23rd Avenue and 13th Street, from 6:30 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. and 5-7 p.m on Tuesday and 6:30 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday.

Carry-outs are also available for those who want to pick up a plate and head home or back to work. The entrance to the drive-thru is located on 13th Street between First Christian and the church office and wraps around the back of the building.

The tradition of the meal began in 1963 after an appeal went went out to the Christian Churches (Disciples of Christ) to help in modernizing Jackman Memorial Hospital in Bilaspur, India, Benson said.

The church’s Christian Women’s Fellowship decided to sponsor a fundraiser, and at the suggestion of their new pastor and his wife, Dr. And Mrs. Apperson, they purchased 60 pounds of Kentucky cured ham, which the Appersons brought back from Kentucky in the trunk of their car. Almost $600 was raised during that first meal to benefit the Jackman Hospital.

This year, the church has purchased about 750 pounds of Kentucky ham and plans to serve at least 2,500 plates during the two days, though some years they have sold closer to 3,000.

The meal’s menu of Kentucky ham, red-eye gravy, scrambled eggs, grits, homemade biscuits and jellies and jams has not changed much since the first meal was served more than six decades ago.

“The meal is pretty traditional,” Benson said, adding the menu is time-tested and has proven popular among those who attend. “The biscuit recipe is still the same one used in 1963.”

A few changes have been made over the years to make the work more convenient for the couple hundred volunteers who are needed to make the meal happen, he said. Besides church members and friends of church members, First Christian has relied on community and Naval Air Station Meridian volunteers in the past to hold the annual event.

“It takes a lot of volunteers to make it happen. It is a labor of love,” Benson said. “It allows us to put our best foot forward as a church.”

Holley Davis, who helps serve during the meal, said the event is always a fun time and has many loyal community supporters who return each year.

“It is a great time,” she said. “You always see people you haven’t seen in a while.”

All money raised from the annual fundraiser goes to benefit local, state and Disciplines-related charities, including the Boys and Girls Club of East Mississippi, Care Lodge, the Laura McDonald Autry Memorial Fund for special needs children, LOVE’s Kitchen, Hope Village for Children, the Cancer Patient Benevolence Fund at Baptist Cancer Center–Anderson, The Meridian Freedom Project, Southern Christian Services in Jackson, Week of Compassion of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and an in-church camp scholarship.