A lot of people appreciate a hot meal on a cold autumn evening.
The Fulton Soup Kitchen helps provide those meals to people in need, but right now, the kitchen needs some help. Ronda Hays, fundraising director for the kitchen, said there will be a "quarter" auction Saturday. Doors at the John C. Harris Community Center, 350 Sycamore St., open at 4 p.m. and the auction will begin at 5 p.m. Food and drinks will be available for purchase.
"It's really fun and you end up talking to people you didn't know," said Hays, who went to her first quarter auction about six months ago.
She said a quarter auction is a hybrid between an auction and a raffle. Bidders buy one or more numbered paddles at the door - one for $5, five for $20 - and tickets corresponding with the numbers go into the bowl.
Then, bidders have time to look at the items on offer.
"We'll have Tupperware household things, makeup, LulaRoe has clothes, there will be Tastefully Simple food mixes," Hays listed.
She said there will be other direct sales vendors and donated items as well.
Next, the auction begins. Each item goes up on the block individually, and the auctioneer announces the bid.
"Say it's an expensive tube of lipstick, worth $25," Hays said. "The bid might be set at 25 cents."
Bids will typically be in increments of 25 cents, and bidders must bring their own quarters.
A volunteer will walk around with a bucket. To place a bid, the bidder puts a quarter in the bucket and holds up his or her paddle. If the bidder puts in two quarters, they could hold up two paddles, and so on.
After all bids are collected, the auctioneer pulls out a ticket and reads the number. If the ticket said 31, and paddle 31 was in the air, its holder would win the item. If not, the auctioneer moves on to the next number.
All funds will support the soup kitchen.
"It'll help with just feeding people, really," Hays said. "Our account just keeps getting lower, because things are more expensive now. It's worse than ever before."
The Fulton Soup Kitchen is open Monday through Friday. Hays said 50-70 people come for evening meals and several dozen show up for lunch.
"We're feeding people on less than a dollar apiece," she said.
For those who can't make it to the auction but still want to help, Hays said the soup kitchen is always accepting donations of food, money and volunteers.
"We can really use some new groups to come in and cook and serve, because we've lost several groups recently," she said.
The kitchen can be reached at 573-220-9517 or at facebook.com/groups/108329065904418.