Area food pantries are making changes to host dinners.

Nancy Hicks, site coordinator for the VAC Community Meal Program, said since July 2009, VAC’s main location at 330 Grove St. has been offering meals on the first, third and fifth Wednesdays of every month.

“We do it because there’s a need for it,” Hicks said. “It started with the federal stimulus grant in 2009, and we’ve kept it going through donations.”

Another place that offers free Wednesday meals is Feed’em Soup, 122 S. First St. Alex Smith, chef at Feed’em Soup, said the organization hasn’t offered a food pantry in about a year.

“There’s 13 or 14 other food pantries in the area,” Smith said. “It was a little too much extra to take in. We offer meals on Thanksgiving and Christmas whether or not it’s Wednesday. If anyone wants to come in and eat, we’re open.”

Derek Gibbs, executive director of Feed’em Soup, said the meals are necessary for the community.

“We haven’t offered a food pantry in about a year,” Gibbs said. “Our service is more vital to the community. We get a lot of donations in the holiday season, so if we do get a lot of non-perishable items we will send them to another food pantry in the area.”

Gibbs said Feed’em Soup’s meals are successful. About 150 people showed up for Thanksgiving last year and 225 for Christmas. Attendance this year is expected to be even higher because SNAP benefits, food stamps, were cut last week.

“Especially with the holiday, we want to help people with nowhere else to go,” Gibbs said. “…not only a warm meal, but somewhere to be instead of sitting at home dealing with holiday depression, which usually happens around that time.”