DECATUR – The team of tried and tested volunteers known as “Vinnie's Helping Hands” were up to their wrists in tasty barbecue again Sunday afternoon.

The occasion was the Block Party for the Homeless, hosted outside the Water Street Mission by retired Decatur restaurateur and full-time Good Samaritan, Vinnie Barbee. The hard core of volunteers who help him feed his trademark barbecue, more than 120 pounds of it, along with 200 hot dogs plus cakes and cookies, water and soft drinks, number around 12 and are known as his Helping Hands.

It's an odd kind of volunteer role, really, one where you stand there handing out delicious, free food while, at the same time, wishing we lived in a time when no one needed it.

“I'm always surprised at the size of the crowd,” said volunteer Bill Deetz, 57, as more than 120 people, aged 8 to senior citizen, got ready to form a chow line. “I wish there was hardly anybody coming here and that they need to do so is a sad thing; but the need never goes away.”