Live music, face-painting, and a free bread table will be just part of the fun at the Stronger Together Community Potluck 2.0 this Saturday, being held at Knox Hall from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

"The first one was such a success that we decided to do it again," Organizer Robin Davison said. "We're hoping to have a little bit more food this time. We're hoping that by word of mouth, this event will be a little bit bigger, so we're planning to have more food at this one. So hopefully we have enough. But we can't always predict how many people are gonna show up. So if we run out of food, I consider that a success."

She said they want to encourage more people to bring their kids along for the meal, so they will also have Kathryn Erickson on hand doing face-painting.

"We're hoping more kids show up. We had kids at the last event, but not as many as we would have hoped," she noted. But this time we're incorporating a local tattoo artist who is gonna come to face painting, and I'm also in touch with a lady who makes cotton candy. So we'll have face painting and cotton candy for the kids."

"It's a family event. The theme is 'stronger together' and the whole point is just to bring people together," Davison expressed.

"I can only speak for myself, but the lockdown in 2020, I honestly feel like it did damage to us spiritually. I honestly feel like it divided us. I feel like a lot of people struggled with hopelessness during and after that lockdown, and I myself am scared at the prospect of it happening again because I think it did real damage community-wise. So that's the goal of the meal is we want to bring people together. We wanna heal those wounds and heal those bonds and just give people a reason to come out and celebrate, and just to feel good for an afternoon. We all want to feel like we belong. We all want to feel like we're a part of something. I think that's really important."

She said they also have three musicians lined up to perform some live music once again, and, just like last time, there will be a free bread table, with plenty more expected to be available this time. 

"We're hoping that a few people contribute as well to the bread table, so it's just nice to send people home with a little something." 

This time, however, there will be one tweak to the way the hot food will be accessed. Leftovers will not be packed up until everyone has been fed.

"We're going to do it a little differently this time. We're going to have people dishing up the entrees," she explained. "The salads will be a free-for-all, the desserts will be a free-for-all. But we're gonna have people dishing up like the chili and the ham and the chicken and all that stuff. If there's food left over, we'll probably do around 1:00, 1:30 and people can dish up and then we could start packing up and we'll kind of play it by ear."

Davison said there are several volunteers in the 'maybe' category, but they are hoping to see a few come early to help set up around 9:30 a.m., as opposed to the night before.

"We're going to be raffling off a care package again, and it consists of a bunch of food items, some staples that we've picked up on sale and some toiletries as well, including laundry soap and toilet paper. So each household that is in attendance gets one entry into the raffle, and we'll be doing that around the 1:30 mark as well."

Anyone who wants more information can find the Facebook event HERE. 

"Come hungry and bring a friend."