H15 Teen Center providing sustenance on 2 levels

When it comes to good food, H15 Teen Center in Millersburg has it covered.

H15 will present its annual all-you-can-eat buffet at Farmstead Restaurant in Berlin on March 5 from 4-7 p.m.

This fundraiser has helped connect with community members and serve as a major proponent of fundraising for the ministry located in Millersburg.

The public is invited to come and enjoy an evening of food and fellowship, which includes a limited menu and the buffet. H15 board, staff and volunteers will take on the roles of servers for the event, and H15 will receive a portion of each purchase and 100% of the tips left.

Patrons are asked to use the side entrance on the west side of the restaurant when stopping by. Farmstead Restaurant is located at 4757 Township Road 366 in Berlin.

While they will serve up a storm on March 5, that isn’t the only celebration of food H15 has recently experienced.

When Andy and Tammy Schafer began their dream of creating a teen ministry in Millersburg several years ago, one of the hopes on their lengthy list of ministries was to create a café that would not only feed teens, but also give them a place to work.

While that dream is beginning to take shape in the second phase of H15 Teen Center Ministries, the joy of being able to feed the teens continues to blossom into more than the couple could have ever imagined, and it is because of the unending support of the community.

The food ministry has evolved into a definitive part of the H15 outreach and has helped bring plenty of youth to the table for evenings of food and fellowship.

“I don’t know if you have ever noticed, but teens like to eat,” Schafer said. “When you work with teens, it is almost a requirement that some sort of food be involved. When we first opened back in 2019, we did our best to have at least some snacks available, and as often as possible, we provided a meal but that was only a few times each month. The heartbreaking thing was that we saw a few teens coming in that didn’t have a meal available to them at home, and when we were able to feed them, they were so very grateful. We wished we could do more, but our budget just didn’t have enough room to feed them all the time.”

Schafer began exploring other options to create a more robust food option for the teens, but it was the public that came to him offering help.

Following their reopening after COVID, a couple offered to keep H15 supplied with all the hot dogs and buns it needed to make sure there was always something to eat. On top of that, they started providing a full home-cooked meal once a month.

His Provisions offered to provide the ministry with a case of meat once a month, which provided several nights’ worth of meals of burgers and bratwurst. Then at the beginning of 2023 when New Grounds Cafe closed, its board donated the remaining food it had to H15.

The community continued to provide.

On a whim Schafer stopped in at Mrs. Yoder’s Kitchen in Mt. Hope on Jan. 5, where he spoke to the manager.

“After a few minutes of talking, Robert looked at me and said, ‘I want to help. If I did a meal for you two Saturdays a month, would that be OK?’ I about fell over. It was more than OK; it was a miracle, and I knew right then that God was providing yet again.”

In picking up the first meal, H15 borrowed one of Mrs. Yoder’s insulated boxes to transport the meal. After returning it, Schafer began thinking it would be very helpful if H15 had one of its own and decided to call Log Cabin Catering to see if they had an older one they didn’t use.

“I talked with Linda, the owner, and after sharing what we needed and why, she said she could help us out,” Schafer said. “She then began to ask more about the ministry, and by the end of the conversation, she had not only agreed to donate the box, but she committed to provide another meal each month for us.”

Another local man contacted Schafer and committed to providing pizza from Romeo’s Pizza once a month, and in the course of just four short weeks, God had blessed H15 and the youth with some great dining options.

Schafer said the food is wonderful but added it simply serves as a conduit to greater things.

“In reality it has nothing to do with filling the bellies of a bunch of hungry teens. That is just a wonderful side effect,” Schafer said. “What this is really all about is showing these teens that they are loved and cared about. As we share all these things with them, we are able to share that God is providing for them through loving people who actually care about what happens to them. It also opens doors to other conversations. Food brings people together.

“I have had many conversations with teens standing around the serving table. New ones that come in are awed by the way they are offered these meals at no charge, and it makes it much easier to connect with them and start a relationship that God will be able to use to have an impact on them. The food not only feeds their bodies, but it helps open the door for God to feed their souls.”

Whether serving food to the youth or to the community, H15 continues to enjoy a terrific relationship with a community that obviously cares deeply for its young adults.