RAPID CITY, S.D. — Every Friday, regardless of the weather, a group of Rapid City volunteers shows up with a simple goal: make sure people who need a meal have something hot to eat.

For Tom Whillock, that weekly commitment has become about much more than food.

Whillock is one of the longtime volunteers behind the Friday Meals served in Rapid City, an effort that has connected volunteers with members of the community experiencing homelessness and hardship for years. On Saturday, Oct. 10, the second annual Stitch Fest: Feed the Need will turn a night of local music and chili into a fundraiser supporting that work.

The event begins at 6 p.m. at 445 Lounge & Grill in Rapid City. A $10 donation gets attendees a bowl of chili, with donations at the door also welcomed. The night will feature local music from Flannel Unplugged with Josh & Pat, Paradise White, Goodfire and The Outside Kids, while DJ Wr4th will keep music going between sets. All money raised is set to benefit Whillock and the Friday Meals.

But behind the fundraiser is a story that began years before Stitch Fest.

A Commitment to His Community

Whillock said his desire to serve his community began after graduating from high school and spending a year traveling. He covered 44 states and Ireland, seeing firsthand what was happening in communities outside his hometown.

When he returned, he felt compelled to do something locally.

“There’s so much to be done,” Whillock recalled. “I thought, well, get your butt back home and do something then.”

A major focus became strengthening relationships between Native and non-Native communities in western South Dakota. Whillock spent some of his early years on the Cheyenne River Reservation, attending his first powwows and meeting Native neighbors there.

He said that experience developed into a longtime commitment to trying to serve as a bridge between communities.

Eventually, that work brought him together with Lloyd Big Crow.

Big Crow had been organizing community meals, bringing food and sometimes toys, sidewalk chalk and other items for children into local neighborhoods. Whillock began helping, and eventually Big Crow suggested making the meals a weekly occurrence at the bandshell.

Whillock was in.

According to him, April 2019 was the last time the group went without a Friday meal.

“We literally have not missed a Friday,” Whillock said.

Showing Up, No Matter the Weather

That commitment has meant serving through rain, snow, wind and bitter South Dakota winters.

When conditions become too severe, other community organizations have sometimes provided indoor space. But Whillock said volunteers have also served meals in some brutal conditions.

Those days have given him perspective.

A volunteer might finish serving, climb into a warm vehicle and drive home. Some of the people receiving the meal may leave and spend the night outside or under a bridge.

“It’s incredibly powerful and humbling,” Whillock said.

While Big Crow eventually moved toward other community work, particularly efforts involving youth, Whillock continued showing up for the Friday Meals.

Over time, what began as meals grew into an informal network of volunteers and organizations working together to meet immediate needs.

More Than a Meal

Whillock describes the Friday Meals as intentionally grassroots.

Volunteers communicate each week about what donations have come in, what food is available, who can cook and what still needs to be purchased. When something is missing, the group reaches out to the community.

The work can extend beyond food to socks, hats, gloves, clothing and other necessities, particularly as winter approaches.

“The meal on Fridays is merely a small band aid,” Whillock said. “It’s necessary and not even close to sufficient.”

That has led to collaboration with other people and organizations serving Rapid City’s vulnerable population. Extra food can be shared with other meal programs, while volunteers communicate with one another about where supplies can do the most good.

“We don’t care who has the gloves or the hamburger,” Whillock said. “We’re doing the same thing for the same people.”

One of those collaborating organizations is Pejuta Waste O’Tipi | Good Medicine Lodge, a Rapid City day center that provides meals, clothing, basic necessities and other resources for people experiencing housing instability. The organization says it serves between 50 and more than 100 people per day.

Learning the Names Behind the Need

For Whillock, years of serving meals have also changed how he views the people on the other side of the serving table.

“It’s impossible to not see a person on the other side of the serving table as a human being when you’re standing there doing that week after week,” he said.

Whillock admits the work can be emotionally difficult. In the early years, he said he would sometimes go home devastated by what he had seen and by knowing there were limits to how much he could do.

But continuing to show up meant learning names.

Then came conversations.

Eventually, some of those relationships became friendships.

Whillock recalled one man in particular, Mateo Fire Thunder, a talented artist who created artwork on pieces of cardboard. Volunteers worked to find him art supplies and waterproof containers to protect his work. Whillock even hoped they could eventually help him sell some of his artwork and create a source of income.

Fire Thunder later died.

Whillock said experiences like that make it difficult to look at someone struggling on a street corner as simply another anonymous person.

“I know almost all their names now,” Whillock said. “They’re people to me.”

He said those relationships have given him greater compassion for the complicated circumstances that can contribute to homelessness.

The goal, he stressed, is not simply to continue feeding people on the street forever.

Volunteers want to help people move forward, whether that means obtaining identification, finding appropriate clothing to wear to a job or simply getting a pair of work gloves when an employment opportunity arises.

“We’re all about trying to get people off the street, not continuing to feed them on the street,” Whillock said.

Stitch Fest Turns Music Into Help

That work is what Stitch Fest organizer Mitchell “Stitch” Stafford wanted to support with this year’s event.

Stafford said Stitch Fest started as a way to gather friends, enjoy live music and celebrate his birthday while using the occasion to give something back to the community.

Last year, the event helped a local cancer survivor. When Stafford began thinking about where the second annual event could make an impact, he landed on Whillock and the Friday Meals.

With winter approaching, the timing could be particularly valuable.

Whillock said money raised could help purchase not only food but also tarps, gloves, hand warmers, foot warmers and other supplies that become increasingly important as temperatures fall.

The impact of a donation, Whillock said, can be almost immediate.

If someone gives money specifically for hats and gloves, volunteers can purchase those items and begin distributing them. Other monetary donations can be placed with a collaborating nonprofit so funds are available when food or other supplies are needed.

“We don’t want anybody’s money in our pocket,” Whillock said. “We want the items in the people’s lives immediately.”

There Is More Than One Way to Help

Whillock hopes Stitch Fest also introduces more people to the Friday Meals and shows them that volunteering does not have to mean making a major weekly commitment.

Someone who loves cooking can prepare food without serving it. Someone without extra money can show up on a Friday afternoon and help serve. Someone who works during the meal can contribute financially instead.

Whillock said even volunteers who can only participate a few times a year are important.

Keeping an effort going every single week for years requires the regular volunteers to occasionally step away and recharge. Someone filling in for just one Friday can make that possible.

“There are people that serve three times a year, and we love them just as much as the people that show up every week,” Whillock said.

That community approach may be the best description of what the Friday Meals have become: people contributing whatever they can, whenever they can, toward the same purpose.

On Oct. 10, Stitch Fest will provide another way to contribute.

Doors for the second annual Stitch Fest: Feed the Need open at 6 p.m. at 445 Lounge & Grill in Rapid City, with music beginning at 6:30 p.m. The chili feed is $10 per bowl, and attendees who do not want chili can make a donation at the door. The event is open to all ages.

How to Donate

People do not have to attend Stitch Fest to help.

During the interview, Whillock said financial contributions supporting the work can be handled through Pejuta Waste O’Tipi | Good Medicine Lodge, allowing donated money to be available when the Friday Meals need food, winter supplies or other necessities. He said one-time and recurring contributions can be made, giving people another way to help even when they cannot volunteer in person.

Pejuta Waste O’Tipi also maintains a current community needs list that includes food, clean socks, jackets, gloves, rain jackets, sweatshirts, backpacks, hygiene products and other necessities.

To donate or learn more about supporting Pejuta Waste O’Tipi | Good Medicine Lodge and its work with vulnerable community members, visit the organization’s donation and needs page:

Donate to Pejuta Waste O’Tipi | Good Medicine Lodge

For Whillock, however, the hope goes beyond what can be raised in one night.

The Friday Meals have continued because people continue to show up — through summer heat, winter cold, difficult weeks and everything in between.

And after years of meals, friendships, losses and countless hours of volunteer work, Whillock wants people to understand that helping does not always require a major commitment.

“You can literally show up at the bandshell, spend an hour of your life there and then go on your merry way,” Whillock said. “And it’s so helpful.”