On Tuesday, July 16, 2019, the Redstone Team volunteered at The Banquet in downtown Sioux Falls for a third time.

364 guests (314 adults and 50 children) received meals on July 16. Redstone volunteers assisted in a variety of ways, including welcoming and visiting with guests, distributing meal tokens, serving food and beverages, assisting with carrying trays, wiping down tables and chairs, washing dishes, and cleaning up afterwards.

The Redstone volunteer group included Redstone Team members and family members as young as 10 years of age. Moreover, Redstone's two ten-year-old volunteers diligently wiped down tables and chairs after guests dined.

One Redstone Team member, Kim Nesheim, visited with a gentleman for 45 minutes. During their conversation, they discussed a number of topics and she learned that the two of them had a lot in common. Moreover, she was impressed with him and with what she learned. Following the experience, Kim said, "I was reminded that the guests are people just like you and me and that we shouldn’t take things for granted."

Another one of Redstone's Team members, Diane Kerr, has been volunteering at The Banquet since 2012. Aside from volunteering as a group with Redstone, she's a "Banquet Angel," meaning she serves meals as an individual when The Banquet needs additional volunteers. She greatly enjoys volunteering and interacting with The Banquet's guests. Asking Diane about her recent volunteer experience with Redstone, she said, "I always enjoy seeing some of my friends at The Banquet."

The Banquet meal ministry was founded in 1985 starting with just one meal per week. It now serves 13 meals per week to the community at two locations – entirely volunteer-based. In 2017, The Banquet served 196,000 meals, and at least 25,000 of those meals were served to children under the age of 12.

Volunteering at The Banquet is a favorite annual volunteer event for Redstone, something that employees look forward to each year. It's one way that Redstone continues to "make it better" in the Sioux Falls community.