GREENFIELD — For a quarter of a century, Deerfield Academy and the Episcopal Church of Saints James and Andrew have been serving up helpings for body and soul.

Each Monday afternoon, Deerfield Academy’s kitchen whips up hot meals and sends them up Routes 5 and 10 to Greenfield, where students and volunteers serve more than 100 people joining the Second Helpings program, a community meal celebrating its 25th anniversary at its weekly meal on April 28.

Second Helpings is a collaboration between the private school and the church that is only growing stronger, according to Erin Donnally Drake, who helps lead the program and is the manager of student information systems at Deerfield Academy.

She said the meal’s goal is to “fill bellies, feed hearts” by helping folks in need, bringing them together and connecting them with the school’s students, who come from around the world and may not be familiar with the region.

“They’re able to connect in the community. … For students, it’s important to see the diversity of opportunities, economics, race and religion,” Donnally Drake said. “It’s such an important thing to do at that age and they really benefit from it.”

The program began in spring 2000 under the leadership of Maggie Sweeney, who was the community service coordinator at Deerfield Academy. At that time, she took students to New York City for a youth services project that involved working in a variety of soup kitchens. On the way home from one of these trips, a student asked if there was an opportunity to carry on that work closer to Deerfield.

Sweeney was, and still is, a member of the church and reached out to its leadership to see if it could facilitate a meal on Monday evenings, as there were no community meals offered on that night of the week.

“They were looking for more opportunities for that kind of volunteering,” Sweeney said. “The fact that it has lasted, that it has hung in there and even expanded for so many years, to me speaks that not only is it meeting a need, but also there has been leadership that has evolved. … It’s been a gift, it’s been a great partnership.”

Second Helpings started out with about 15 or 20 guests in its early days before growing to more than 50 people in the first year. Today, the church and Deerfield Academy serve about 40 in-person meals and 75 takeout meals each week. Even after Sweeney left Deerfield Academy in 2003, she stayed with the program until about a year ago when she moved to Connecticut. She plans on attending the 25th anniversary celebration.

The aspect of Second Helpings that sticks out to Sweeney 25 years after she helped bring it to life is the unique partnership between the school and church, as well as the longevity despite turnover in leadership.

“I don’t know how many programs there are that are able to link up a private school and a church, and have equal input and participation from both sides,” Sweeney said. “The fact that people stepped up, both at the school and the church, to carry it forward and to keep it going, to me, is probably one of the neatest things.”

A major bump in the road for Second Helpings was the pandemic, but even a global shutdown wasn’t enough to stop the program, as Donnally Drake said the school’s director of dining would meet the chefs at a gas station to deliver ingredients. Once the meals were cooked, the gas station rendezvous would take place again to get the food up to Greenfield.

While the in-person community was affected for a few years — she said it is still growing back to its pre-pandemic numbers — Second Helpings didn’t miss a beat when it came to take-away meals.

“We never missed a meal, which was pretty incredible,” Donnally Drake said, recounting the lengths staff went through to ensure the program continued. “It was sort of a Herculean effort.”

As the program caries on into its second quarter century, Donnally Drake said the focus is to keep folks coming back for another helping of food and community.

“It’s a real welcoming place,” she said. “We don’t have any changes in mind, just to keep going and building the community we want to see.”

To celebrate the anniversary of Second Helpings, David Miller, the school’s director of educational initiatives and the Center for Service and Global Citizenship, said Deerfield Academy will be matching donations to Second Helpings. Checks can be sent to the Episcopal Church of Saints James and Andrew at 8 Church St., Greenfield, MA 01301 with “Second Helpings” in the memo line.

“Over the past 25 years, Second Helpings has been such a special partnership and program for us here at Deerfield Academy. Beyond the impact it has made in the local community, we are grateful for the opportunity that thousands of Deerfield Academy students and employees have had to serve, learn and connect every Monday,” Miller said. “In the spirit of partnership, Deerfield Academy has committed to matching any gifts made to the Second Helpings program before June 30 up to a total of $5,000. We look forward to helping this unique program continue to thrive for years to come.”

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com.