Location: Breaking Bread Ministries/LaSalle Street Church
Date: Wednesday, September 30, 2015; 5:45-8:30 pm
Since I couldn’t go on the 1st Wednesday for this
month and the next, I had asked Marianne if I could come some other week and
she had requested this one. I arrived to
see that there were more volunteers than 2 weeks ago, but there was no sign of
Marianne. I had bought my new apron and
wore it instead of the flimsy plastic one.
I asked the Chef if he needed any help, but it looked like he had enough
people. So I went outside and helped with
the distribution of plastic cutlery instead.
Looks like the dishwasher was still broken
 |
| Tonight's Menu |
Marianne arrived and after greetings, she immediately
allocated duties. She asked me to stack the trolleys with trays and for this
task I was being helped by another volunteer.
We were done soon, and then it was a lot of waiting around. The menu was rice, “creole chicken with sauce”, “creamed
spinach” and “apple strudel”. Marianne said that she didn’t like apples and
I said me too, unless they were in a cider!
Marianne talked about her grandchildren in Pittsburgh, and it was the
first that I had heard about her being from my old hometown. She said that she loved them the most and I
said that grandparents always view grandchildren as being a way of correcting their
mistakes with their kids. I chatted with
Chef Dan and his wife Kathy. They are both nurses, do catering on the side and are grandparents. I also learnt that the chef was a
son of German immigrants; explaining the presence of “apple strudel” on the menu.
The room outside was quite full and Marianne said that she
was glad that all of us had shown up, considering that she had forgotten that
there was a 5th Wednesday this month. There was one new volunteer, and so Marianne
did her speech, and then we prayed. I
was on plating as usual, but before that we had to fill up the big orange
colored juice container. After filling
it to the brim with ice, I took it outside and filled it up with bottles of
grape juice. We took our positions and
some of the volunteers served the salad bowls, as Marianne made her
announcements. Although we had lot of guests, I couldn’t see my usual friend. One lady
did come and chatted with me, asking where I was from and then inquiring about
the menu. I said that we should look at
it together and so we walked to the front of the room where the menu was
posted. A gentleman who was with her
shook my hand and introduced himself.
New friends already!
The food was brought out and I was on the “apple strudel”. Initially we were going to plate it in a
bowl, but there was room on the plate and so I just put it there. We were soon out of the initial 75 plates and
10 additional ones. Plus we were going
through a lot of the food and were soon down to our last trays. I knew there wouldn’t be enough for
seconds. Sure enough, only chicken and
sauce were remaining and we were now rationing portions. It was sad to tell our guests that we were
out of food, especially since earlier we had to tell them there was no coffee
since we had not brewed.
Soon the food was over and some people who had been with the
nurse had to be turned back. Marianne
was looking sad but there was nothing that we could have done. The chef was looking sad as well and he said
that he would get proper measuring spoons for serving, since there was a lot of “creep” in our serving i.e. uneven
portions. I stacked chairs and pushed
away tables and then bid Marianne farewell. I said that I couldn't come next week, but would be back the following month.
No comments:
Post a Comment