LEXINGTON, Ky. — Volunteers can make a difference at Lexington's Lighthouse Ministries this year.


What You Need To Know

  • People can help Lexington's long-term community outreach group by serving a hot plate
  • The center provides resources and faith-based services

  • The nonprofit partners with groups like the Lexington Rescue Mission, Catholic Action Center and more

  • Lighthouse Ministries has been a beacon for those in need since 1999

Lexington’s Lighthouse Ministries has been a part of over 20 years of community service in the city. Executive director Tay Henderson and her late husband have helped people who are on the streets or in recovery for years. 

And after his passing, she said she had to decide on her own what she would bring differently to a community that needs consistent support. “You don’t want to duplicate what people are doing,” Henderson said. 

Lighthouse Ministries provides two meals throughout the week and one hot plate every Sunday. (Spectrum News 1/Sabriel Metcalf)

Now, she and the center have worked to provide items from shirts, pants, shoes, coats, sanitary items, and even resources for those in transitional periods. But one of the key ways Henderson and team continue the decade long service is through warm meals for people in need.

Henderson said it’s a way of communicating and is just one way people feel welcomed and willing to receive help.  

“You can tell people they need to get off drugs and you can tell somebody to try to help, but the mentally ill need to be fed,” she explained. “So that was one of the first and foremost things that we are used to and I used to call it — first-floor ministry, they need to eat. They are hungry.”

It is also why they say volunteers make a world of difference.

Almost daily, they serve lunch and dinner through its Dining with Dignity program — a service that gives people a conversation, prayer and a bit of choice with the hot plate. 

Henderson believes it’s a natural service that needs support and says the center could always use multiple helping hands with all things they offer.