Eat A Hot Dog to Fight Crime? What the heck...

The scene Tuesday 

This is what I love about this town.

You can be riding your bike east on 25th Street, tired from an 18-mile ride, pondering the leftovers you have for dinner, when out of the blue someone on the sidewalk hollers "Want a free hot dog?"

I do. There's 43 years of living on a journalist's salary showing: Never pass up a free meal.

The folks offering the free food -- 2nd and 4th Tuesdays at 25th and Jefferson Avenue, 6-ish, are the nice folks at Ogden's First Baptist Church, that imposing red brick edifice on the corner there.

Pastor Karl Dumas said the idea came up about four years ago as a way to just get to know the folks in the neighborhood, an interesting mix of pretty well-to-do people living in the Jefferson District's renovated mansions and the street people who tend to hang around the Library, which is a convenient kitty-corner away.

Shirley Bowe persons the grill

But all are welcome -- very little preaching except when Rev. Dumas noted that the Bible does say to be generous when life has been good to you (Genesis, I think he said), and what's more Christian that being nice to folks wandering by?

Of course they invite you to come to church on Sunday, but you've already got your hot dog.

One of the members of the church, Connie, said they're trying to get the word out that their congregation is not just about sitting in pews on Sunday -- they have a youth ministry and are doing more outreach.

Rev. Dumas said the hot dog thing has been interesting. Little kids line up as soon as they see the grill out, and he said he knows some of them are school kids whose meals have been cut short since school let out.

Makes sense. Kids from low income homes (No, you can not support a family on a $10 an hour job) often don't get good meals except for those in schools, and with school out the kids only get lunch in the park.

He said he hopes he's just planting a seed with those kids. "I figure some day a gang is going to reach out to them and say 'Come join us, but you have to prove your worth by shooting someone,' and maybe they'll remember someone reached out to them before and gave them a hot dog without asking them to do that."

Local kid gets free hot dog

Sounds iffy, but you never know where friendship can lead or what will plant a tiny seed in some kid's mind. It says there are options.

I saw Rev. Dumas talking to a guy with no teeth who said he was "watching" a vacant house up on 27th street. Karl and I winked at each other at the neat reference to squatting, but they still gave him a couple bags of food, specially selected soups and fruits that he could handle.

It's like a whole different congregation," Karl said of the folks who stop by.

"They go to other churches, or they live at the Rescue Mission, which means they go to church six times a week," but here all they have to do is say "Yes," and they get a free meal.

Even if they're just passing by on a bicycle. I like that.

Rev. Karl Dumas