Biggest family dinner in town continues to see more people
It’s not your typical restaurant seen throughout the area but the Revelation Diner is fulfilling a definite need in the Decatur area==in terms of good food, fellowship, and done with the Lord’s blessing–but the price for many is the best part because dinners are at no cost.
The head of the Revelation Diner is Danielle Banuelos who said that while goodwill donations for the food are always accepted, that’s not the main reason why she put the leg work into starting the diner which is located in the New Beginnings Faith Center at Tenth and Dayton Street in Decatur.
“I felt a calling. God placed this idea in my heart to do for our community,” she smiled, adding dinners are served starting at 5 p.m. every Wednesday.
“I like to call it the biggest family dinner in town. We have our regular customers but always seem to get new people in every week. It’s getting to the point if one of our regulars doesn’t come, we get concerned about them and check to make sure things are okay with them,” she said.
“We put on a Thanksgiving dinner at which we served 136 people. The average count per week comes to around 80 people but that is growing as well” and Banuelos stressed the diner handles carry-out orders as well so that average number of 80 is actually a little higher.
The next biggest project is a Christmas dinner to be offered to the community on December 13.
While she noted there have been a few weeks when she has done all of the work for the dinner. Banuelos said not only have some members of the New Beginnings Faith Center helped out but members of other churches in the community have as well.
She tries to mix up what is served for the Wednesday night dinners so they don’t become old. “We serve all types of food but I’ll tell you one of the favorites that our people have here is when we serve chicken wings,” she said.
In addition to seeing the people enjoy the food at the diner, Banuelos stressed fellowship for people is a big key as well. “Some people come in just to eat and then leave, while others enjoy the company and fellowship of others and stay for a period of time to talk.”
Banuelos is not putting on the meals to make money or
be self-serving as the opposite is virtually the case as she referred again to the calling she received. The goodwill donations do help to purchase the food served on Wednesdays but as economic times force budgets to be tightened, the availability of food she once had access to is quickly drying up.
She noted she was able in the beginning to get food through the Community Harvest Food Bank in Fort Wayne but while
the shelves there were plentiful at one time, the available items now are getting pretty slim. “I used to be able to get 20-30 pounds of hamburger so I could make chili but those items aren’t available much anymore,” she noted. She said donations throughout the community have helped the Revelation Diner continue its mission and anyone who would like to help financially should call her at 260-418-5495.