Shepherd University students add mustard and relish to their hotdogs in front of St. Peter's Lutheran Church on Tuesday. Tabitha Johnston

SHEPHERDSTOWN — As the school year started up again for Shepherd University on Monday, one group of community members decided to reach out to the new and returning students with a welcoming hand.

The parishioners of St. James Lutheran Church set up a free food stand for the university students every day over the past week, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Monday through Friday, in front of their church building. Since the church building is located directly across the street from the university’s Knutti Hall and Stutzman-Slonaker Hall, the food stand proved to be incredibly popular with the students.

“We’re so hungry!” said freshman accounting major Sasha Daugherty, as she picked up a freshly grilled Nathan’s hotdog.

Daugherty and her friend, freshman business major Mallory Bates, stopped by the stand on Tuesday afternoon.

“I love it! There’s nothing better than free food,” Bates said. “We’ll be stopping by again for more food later this week.”

A St. Peter's Lutheran Church member hands a hotdog to a Shepherd University student on Tuesday afternoon. Tabitha Johnston

Shepherdstown resident Michael Metzger could be found manning the grill on the church’s lawn, throughout the five-day event.

“A lot of the students are on their own for the first time, so we want to make them feel welcome here — no strings attached!” Metzger said, as he rotated a vegan hotdog on the grill.

Metzger’s sister and the event’s organizer, Jerri Burgess, agreed wholeheartedly with him.

“Last year we tried it, but we didn’t really have our ducks in a row before school started. We did it one day only, sometime mid-September,” Burgess said, mentioning that event didn’t have anywhere near a similar turnout to what she had been seeing over the past week. “This year, I wanted to try doing it the whole first week of school, which was ambitious. I am so happy we did! We handed out 70 hotdogs on our first day, even though it rained.”

Along with hotdogs with all of the regular toppings, the students were served chips, cookies, lemonade and water.

Shepherd University students chow down on freshly grilled hotdogs in front of St. Peter's Lutheran Church on Tuesday afternoon. Tabitha Johnston

“It’s not a matter of trying to bring kids into the church,” Burgess said. “It’s a matter of saying, ‘Welcome! Welcome to our town. We love you and we want you to have a good year.’ That’s it!”

According to the church’s pastor of nine years, Rev. Karen Erskine-Valentine, the church will be trying to find more ways throughout the coming year to reach out to Shepherd’s students.

“We want them to know that they’re loved and that we care and that they matter to us,” Erskine-Valentine said. “We’re going to start a Thursday morning gathering, where we’re going to serve some food and see what students want. We want to be present and have the door open for conversation.”

The coordinator of the Thursday morning gatherings will be the church’s administrative assistant, Mary Gunderson King.

“We’re trying to find ways to give breath to students,” Gunderson King said. “Some are needing to rush to class and so they can’t necessarily take the time to be still and have a conversation, which is why we’re like, ‘Okay. Let’s provide a sense of nourishment for them.’ We want to help make their experience at Shepherd University a good one, in whatever way we can.”

St. Peter's Lutheran Church member Michael Metzger grills hotdogs for Shepherd University's students on Tuesday afternoon. Tabitha Johnston