The perfect elixir: How Tarleton Serves and Graham Street Church of Christ mix service, spirit and community

BY CAROLINE CRAIN

News Editor

On a fall evening in Stephenville, the smell of casseroles drifts from the Family Center at Graham Street Church of Christ. Students, church members and community volunteers line tables with foil pans of home-cooked food – a blend of service, faith and fellowship that has become something of a local elixir.

The event is called Night of Casseroles, and it’s one of many ways Tarleton State University’s culture of service connects with the surrounding community. On Oct. 30, Tarleton Serves partnered with the church for its monthly giveaway, handing out meals to anyone who needed one, no questions asked.

Le Jones, the Night of Casseroles ministry leader, said the mission is simple.

“Whenever people pass by Graham Street and the Family Center, they’ll look and say, ‘you know what, those people feed people,’” Jones said. “‘They show the love of God to other people, not being judgmental, not to some of the backlash that churches have ever received in the past, but they do it just because.’”

The idea began in April 2020, when Jones was helping distribute food at the church during the COVID-19 pandemic. As drive-through lines grew, many people were turned away due to limits or eligibility requirements.

“I said, ‘You know, wouldn’t it be great if all we had to do was make 100 casseroles, and we would simply say ‘just come by here,’ and we don’t ask them their name or anything,” Jones said. “We hand them a casserole, tell them God loves them and send them on their way.”

And so, Night of Casseroles came to life. When COVID went away, though, the need didn’t.

“Just because COVID ended doesn’t mean that people quit being hungry,” Jones said. “So we decided to continue to do this, and we’ve been going at it five and a half years.”

The effort has grown in those years. What started small now serves between 75 and 100 casseroles each month, reaching as many as 198.

“We started with two tables, now we usually have five,” Jones said. “I’ve got a lot of more service people interested in being involved; they basically see God at work and want to join him in these efforts.”

The event attracts a diverse mix of volunteers. The county attorney, individuals and juveniles completing probation or community service hours, high school students, Tarleton organizations, church members and everyday residents all take part.

For Jones, the volunteers mean everything.

“I appreciate it more than they can ever know,” Jones said. “I try to thank each person personally and make a personal connection with them.”

The effort has even inspired others to start their own version of the project. Jones said a group of missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints volunteered during their time in Stephenville, and after returning home, they sought permission to recreate the Night of Casseroles in their own community.

“And the beauty of that is that anybody could do that, even if you’re in a tiny town, America, and only can put out 12 casseroles, 12 families are getting fed because of something that we may have influenced,” Jones said. “I just think that's beautiful – that it’s a seed that could be planted anywhere and we can make the world a better place.”

Jones said the ripple effect isn’t just seen in the communities, but in the volunteers themselves.

“Sometimes something like this isn’t so much for the people as it is for the people that are involved, because I think I get just as much out of doing it as I think the people that are receiving the casseroles do,” Jones said. “It's just a different kind of feeling.”

That feeling is shared by many members of Tarleton Serves, a service-based organization at Tarleton, who regularly volunteer at Night of Casseroles and other community projects.

One of these members is Yareni Davila Cabrera, a senior and the assistant director of partnerships for the organization.

“Our mission is to essentially just help support and provide for the community and other surrounding communities,” Cabrera said. “We really love to help out with our nonprofits or any other organizations within the area that we’re able to help and support.” 

Tarleton Serves has a long and growing list of volunteer and service efforts, including work with Night of Casseroles, food banks, soup kitchens, animal shelters, local grade schools, Adopt-a-Highway, Stephenville cleanups, Habitat for Humanity, the Harbin Volunteer Fire Department, Lone Star Fireworks and in-meeting service projects. 

Beyond Stephenville, Tarleton Serves offers Alternative Spring Break, a free program where students travel to help communities in need. Last year, participants helped with hurricane relief in Jonesville, Virginia.

Aryn Lesley is a junior and the assistant director of operations for Tarleton Serves. She said she found her place in the organization by attending an Alternative Spring Break trip.

“It’s such a rewarding experience to give back to a different community outside of Stephenville and not just be able to still make those bonds and have a great break, but to give back and to enjoy helping some other people and expanding our resources and our passion in a different community, which is super, super awesome,” Lesley said.

That sense of fulfillment is something many in Tarleton Serves share, including Ivan Orduna, a junior and member of the Tarleton Serves service committee.

“Seeing the impact we can make feels wonderful,” Orduna said. “Ever since I joined this organization last year as a member, I knew I wanted to be a part of it in a bigger way, and being a part of the service committee helped me see how much change we’ve made. … It’s honestly just a huge difference that we’ve seen so far.”

Like the Night of Casseroles, Tarleton Serves is seeing significant growth. Kate Ochoa, a senior and the organization’s assistant director of membership, witnessed this growth firsthand.

“I remember my freshman year when I first went, at meetings, there were like 10 people. And the first meeting back, we had 200 people,” Ochoa said. “Some people were even sitting on the floors because they ran out of chairs. It was great to see how much the organization has grown over the years and how many people want to help the community and support in any way they can."

Members say that beyond the service work, the organization is also a great place to build relationships.

“It’s just really impacted us in a really, really wonderful way,” Cabrera said. “These are some of my best friends here. We’ve also met some really awesome people in the organization itself that we call almost family.”

Tarleton Serves has no membership fee, and students only need to attend two service events per semester to remain active. Students who complete 189.9 service hours also earn a graduation cord. The organization welcomes anyone interested in joining and giving back to the community.

“Please come join us. It’s so fun, you get to make new friendships, you get to get community service hours for your 1899 cord,” Orduna said. “It’s honestly a great way to give back to the community that welcomed you to this college town.”

That shared passion for helping others brings Tarleton Serves and Night of Casseroles together: two groups driven by compassion, working to make their corner of the world a little brighter.

“It’s kind of nice seeing people around campus enjoying giving back to the community. We don’t live here full-time and this may not be our forever home, but it’s so great to see all the students getting involved in this community and giving back,” Lesley said.

Jones shares that same belief.

“We could come together in a system of camaraderie, and it not only makes Stephenville a better place, but makes the world a better place, and so that’s what it's really all about,” Jones said.

And maybe that’s the secret to the perfect elixir: a mix of service, spirit and community that nourishes more than just those who are fed.