Several local residents may receive a knock at their door this weekend as the Meet Me at the Court youth group conducts its mission project, starting at 4 p.m. Saturday.
The group will deliver "love baskets" containing a variety of foods to 20 - 30 local residents throughout the community.
Veronica Bailey, founder and chief executive officer of Meet Me at the Court, said the annual basket deliveries is the first of several mission projects that MMC youth has planned for the month.
"We're just going to deliver them in the community. There are no specific individuals, no chosen individuals. It's just people in the community," Bailey said.
MMC youth members will gather at Bailey's residence in the 600 block of West Cedar to prepare the baskets and then fan out into neighborhoods across the city.
She said each basket will contain the customary fruits and vegetables and this year, meat will be added to the baskets. Recipients will have their pick of a frozen whole chicken or a whole rotisserie-cooked chicken.
"Also, in the basket there will be one of the Meet Me at the Court youths' favorite Bible verses. They'll be on a piece of paper in each basket," said Bailey.
The "love baskets" are part of a series -- a dozen or more mission -- community service projects that MMC youth members undertake every year to meet the group's overall mission of serving others.
Bailey said the baskets are typically delivered during the summer but the group postponed the mission because members were busy with sports and other sundry extracurricular activities.
"This is the month where it all kind of subsides, October. They're just going to do their mission by sharing with others in the community," Bailey said.
Later this month, MMC youth members will box up lap blankets and donate them to a local church, who will, in turn, deliver the blankets to homeless people who live under a bridge in Lancaster, Texas.
Bailey said that when she heard about the church's mission project, she immediately knew she wanted MMC youth to be involved.
"I talked to my Meet Me at the Court youth captains and they said, 'Yes, Ms. Bailey. That's something that we want to do.' They want to donate at least 50 blankets. That's their goal," she said.
With the MMC mission projects, Bailey said she and her team of volunteers, including friends and family members, try to impress upon youth members the importance of helping others.
The group delivers materials, including magazines, to nursing home residents and food to residents in the community, often venturing into the neighborhoods they serve to distribute plate lunches/dinners, deliver Christmas gifts, coordinate community cleanups and hold voter registration drives.
"I try to teach them that no matter the situation, no matter where someone lives, no matter what neighborhood, we are all God's children," said Bailey. "They not only know the definition of what it means to help others but they also get firsthand experience. I just step back and let them do it. It's their project"
For more information or to join MMC, call Bailey at 870-310-0391.