At a picnic table outside the clubhouse of Newcastle’s Harriet Gertrude Bird Playground Saturday night, Brigid Griffin of Whitefield said she times all her friends’ visits to have a community supper somewhere on the schedule.

“It’s unique to Maine,” she said. She gets to as many as she can, including ones at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in Wiscasset and the one she was at that night, put on by Sheepscott Community Church. The visitors she brings to the suppers say “Wow,” Griffin said.

On the other side of the table was her friend Vikki Goyins, visiting from Willingboro, New Jersey. Asked what she thought of the event, Goyins said: “I think I’m going to go home and see if we can do it at my church.”

The church holds a supper every month, either at the town’s clubhouse at 619 Sheepscot Road or in the vestry of the church at 8 The King’s Highway, depending on the time of year, organizers said. People often line up a half hour early, the church’s board president Lydia Crafts said. “It’s a great community outreach.” The suppers, where attendees pay by donation, are fundraisers for the church; some of the proceeds from Saturday’s supper were also going to New Hope for Women, Crafts said.

“I’m very thankful and grateful,” said New Hope community-based advocate Karen Stevenson, on hand with information on the nonprofit’s services in Lincoln, Sagadahoc, Knox and Waldo counties.

Heading back to the parking lot, Calvin Dodge of Damariscotta said he and wife of 57 years Marjorie Dodge had had a nice mix of baked beans and salads. “Very nice,” Marjorie said. The lemon cream pie was really good, said Dresden’s Mary Hallowell, attending with boyfriend Bob Siegars of Dresden.

At a picnic table near the one Griffins and Goyins were at, Adam and Hannah Harter-Ives of Round Pond were enjoying their choices from the supper while son Soren, 2, was nearly finished with his peanut butter and jelly sandwich. “That’s one of his go to’s,” his father said, smiling. The couple said he isn’t yet into the kinds of food they were having.

The couple had been to the church’s suppers a couple of times. They know some of the people and it’s nice to support New Hope for Women, Hannah added.

Some attendees ate inside the clubhouse, after going through the buffet of biscuits, pies, cole slaw and salads with berries, greens, nuts and croutons. Steve Chaney of Alna served the pea beans and Jon Robbins of Whitefield, the pinto beans, which he said were a North Whitefield Fire Department recipe.

The church’s next supper is Saturday, Sept. 9, from 5 to 7 p.m. at the clubhouse, Crafts said.