“We pay to serve,” said Teri Branan, who helps each week at the Marysville Community Lunch at the Unitarian Universalist Church on 4th Street. “We do it out of the kindness of our hearts every week.”

Branan said they receive food donations from various places, but there are always holes to fill so the volunteers pitch in.

Volunteers work on Monday, Wednesday or Friday from about 12:30 to 2 p.m. The 25-40 volunteers are split into the three days. Between 30 and 70 homeless show for each meal.

“Each day we have to find our own donations,” Branan said, adding they might be able to find more help but they don’t have the time.

“We’ve put together a ragtag group that just tries to keep up,” she said. “We never had the opportunity to dream.”

Pushed for what their needs are, Branan said they could use more freezer space. She said they seem to get a lot of meat donated.

“We have 1 1/2 pallets of meat spread out all over Snohomish County,” she said.

Branan said they can always use more fruits and vegetables, along with paper plates, coffee, milk and water.

She said if they had more volunteers it would lessen the financial burden on each one.

“It’s a huge cost to each of us,” she said, adding even volunteering once a month would help.

The volunteers don’t just cook, serve and clean up. They often have a cup of coffee and visit with the homeless.

“It’s total friendship,” Branan said. “It’s what keeps you coming back.”

Brenda Peckham is another volunteer.

“I’ve been blessed in my life to be able to give back,” Peckham said. “It’s the small things that make a difference to them. We look at them as a person and call them by name, and not just think of them as a thing on the street.”

Volunteer Leona Holtrum said socks are a huge need for the homeless. She also said they could use: tents, sleeping bags, coats, hats, sweatshirts, toiletries, diapers and paper towels.

Holtrum said the homeless go through a lot of clothes because they don’t have money for laundries.

“They take them off and throw them away,” she said.

Branan said the Community Lunch has been at the church for about six years. It started out with sack lunches out of the back of a car and then was outside at where the boat launch is now south of Penny’s.

She said the homeless that come to the lunch are compassionate and friendly and very good at policing themselves so there is little trouble. Still, she tries to hold them accountable, but she does it with respect and in a friendly manner to show she cares.

“We give some humanity back to them,” she said. “The difference is so small between us and them – just one financial disaster.”