For a small cost of $186.00 along with some delicious donated deserts, a crew of 16 volunteers, consisting of young and older adults, we did as the Lord asks of us and fed 70-80 needy people at the Cambridge Bridges Shelter on Saturday, October 25th.
The 3 course meal consisted of:
Appetizer - Mixed Green salad with strawberries, cranraisens, mandarins
Main course – Chicken, smashed garlic potatoes, glazed carrots, peas and corn
Desert – combination of each donated desert topped with strawberries & a heaping scoop of ice cream.
The day was full of lots of work but also lots of fun! 4 different crews helped to make the day a success!
Crew 1: Preparation:
Kyla, Agnes, Pam, Lynn & Adrianne
- cleaning, cutting and preparing 35 lbs potatoes and 15 lbs carrots. We had a few ladies with orange hands, just in time for Halloween!
Ed & Pete
- cleaning & cutting 80 pieces of chicken – all that chicken we’re lucky none got away!
Crew 2 & 3: Cooking - Meal & Dessert Preparation:
Thanks to a big industrial stove with 9 burners and 2 large ovens the task of cooking and ensuring everything would be ready on time was accomplished!
Kyla, Ryan, Colleen helped with buttering buns and making place settings for 80 people.
Jennifer & Rhonda prepared the chicken with a *special* coating which they seemed to continuously run out off! Mmmm that chicken is going to taste great!
Ed giving the thumbs up after he, Ryan & Rhonda finished preparing the juice.
As the meal is cooking all hands busy on deck, or in this case in the kitchen, doing some other tasks.
In the dinning room tables being moved, salads being prepared and a rendezvous to discuss what to do with the deserts! Oh yes, figuring out what to do with the dessert was harder then preparing the main course …but leave it to the school kids to come together to prepare this special treat! 80 containers filed with a taste of each desert – awaiting its toppings, a little later!
5:15 - Kitchen filled with the aroma of chicken still baking, pots still boiling and panic in the air wondering if it was really possible to put everything together in 15 minutes as John (the weekend cook)assured us it would. Sure enough, calmed by his demeanor, John helped us to bring it all together, glazing the chicken was a fun task and back into the oven they went for another 10 minutes! Lots of time to spare!
Ryan, Jess, Karli & Rhonda all lend a hand in “smashing” the potatoes which were prepared with garlic, butter, sour cream, parmesan cheese and milk…mouth watering. As you can see the potato masher was just a little bigger then Jess!
Colleen draining mandarins; Ed/Ryan/Jennifer preparing to glaze carrots, while in the dining room Karli cleans tables and Nick, Rhonda & Jess top up the salads with strawberries and mandarins with Paula looking on.
Crew 4 – Serving
5:30 Enters the Clients - the dining room once vacant now filled with the bustle of 80 people sitting patiently waiting to be fed. Colleen, Kyla & Jennifer dish up the food while the school kids, Karli, Jess, Ryan, Paula & Nick, eager to do their part, requested that they be the ones to serve giving them the opportunity to meet the clients one on one!
Once the main course is served and eaten toppings are added to the dessert and the kids once again serve the clients (unfortunately with so much activity we forgot to take pictures of the desserts!)
We too, after a long day, are a little hungry so we dish up our own plates and join the clients, what better way to get to know the clients and really find out how the food tastes - and of course how can you resist that dessert and toppings!
Crew 4 – Cleaning Up:
Thanks to an industrial dishwasher and the domestic skills of Nick & Ed the clean up was a breeze. Actually with a lot of the crew staying around til the end the extra hands helped to lessen the load.
A little time to relax and then farewells!
All enjoyed the day and the opportunity to help, a request has already been voiced by the kids of doing this again very soon.