---

ATTLEBORO

Another new soup kitchen has opened in the city.

Members of Good News Bible Chapel are now operating a kitchen from 4:30 to 5:30 every Tuesday night at the church on West Street.

Staffed with volunteers, the kitchen opened a little more than a month ago, and although no one came the first couple of weeks, more than 30 people began attending once the word got out.

Steve Duplessie, an elder at the church, said the new kitchen is a way of following God's command to serve others. `` We're trying to show God's love in a practical way,'' he said.

The idea for the kitchen came from a couple of church members who wanted to go beyond the free clothing distribution that Good News had been doing for several years.

Marie Silva, who helped organize the kitchen with Nicole Wenger, said the clothing drive made them more aware of how many people in Attleboro are in need.

Both women see the kitchen as something God wants them to do.

`` It is something He has called me to do,'' Silva said, adding that Wenger feels the same. `` There are different ways He calls people, and for me, it is helping people who are less fortunate.''

Tuesdays were chosen for the kitchen, she said, because there is no other kitchen open in the Attleboro area on that night.

The Attleboro Area Council of Churches sponsors six Food 'n' Friends kitchens in four communities, but the Tuesday night kitchen is in Mansfield, and Duplessie said transportation is sometimes an issue for people going there.

Before the kitchen at Good News opened, Duplesssie spoke with council of churches Director Dot Embree about the plan, and he said he agreed to monitor the impact of the new kitchen on the Food 'n' Friends program.

The intent, he said, is not to draw people away from the Mansfield kitchen, but instead to fill a gap by providing a kitchen in Attleboro.

`` We have nothing but appreciation and respect for the work of the council of churches for many years,'' he said. `` They have been doing an excellent job serving the needy in the community. They are very much to be recognized and appreciated for what they do.'' Although Good News is not on a public bus line, some people ride their bicycles there, he said, and volunteers at the kitchen have been picking up people at the Attleboro Public Library on North Main Street and driving them to the church.

To spread the word about the new kitchen, the volunteers put up posters around the city, and distributed fliers at various agencies and at the Monday night Food 'n' Friends kitchen at LaSalette Shrine.

The kitchen at Good News has no religious component and is not tied to any worship, Duplessie said, but Bible verses are left on the tables, and literature is available in the church lobby.

Good News is the second evangelical church to open a kitchen in recent months. Living Waters Christian Church on North Main Street began this past winter to serve hot meals the second Saturday of the month from 3 to 5:30 p.m.

Duplessie said many evangelical churches have become aware that they had not been doing a good job serving the needy in their communities, and have become more conscious in recent years of the need to do that type of outreach.

For more information about the kitchen at Good News, call the church at 508-226-2916.