Community Health Dinners
By David Paulson
We must utilize every legitimate opportunity to reach our fellow men. The example of Christ emphasizes this. He not only preached to the people in the synagogue, but he also attended the marriage feast at Cana. He sat down with the other guests at the publican’s dinner, and entered into the family spirit in that humble home in Bethany. We have found that one good way to become acquainted with an excellent class of people is to invite them to a health-food banquet. We commend this idea to those of our institutions that have not yet tried it, and also to many of our people who could do the same in a smaller way. Recently our new Hygienic Café in Milwaukee served two such meals in one day. The first one was to the general secretaries of the Y. W. C. A., who were holding a convention in the city at the time. There were nearly forty young ladies present, representing twenty-two States. It was a splendid opportunity to sow good seed in good soil. They enjoyed the dinner, and gave the closest attention to the after-dinner talk on the relation between diet and development of character. At the close of business hours another dinner was served to some of Milwaukee’s leading business men and their wives. It was a rare opportunity to get our principles before a class of people whom it would have been difficult to reach in any other way. A few months ago Brother Dowsett, the conference secretary, became convinced that the time had come to do definite medical missionary work in Milwaukee. So he invested his own means, and encouraged some of the brethren to do the same, and with the co-operation of the Medical Missionary Board, there has been opened up one of the most attractive hygienic cafés and treatment rooms that we have seen. Both of these departments are already patronized by some of the best citizens of the place. Should not some of our leading brethren in other places plan to co-operate in doing this work? Let us each ask ourselves if we have done all we can to benefit the people living in our community.