All sorts of good things are happening at the Celebrate Outreach weekend meals.
Ongoing improvements in our new kitchen:
- New pot sinks with a sprayer! No more black plastic wash tubs in the middle of the serving room! No more spilling the dirty dish water while trying to pour it into buckets to dump! We are using the sink now, even before the vinyl backsplash is installed. (Plus there’s a new designated hand washing sink and a mop sink!)
- Our new stove hood has just been installed and awaits our 6-burner, two-oven gas range, which will be installed next week!
- New shelves, kitchen equipment, serving cart, and a freezer and refrigerator–all waiting for the kitchen to be finished so we can move them in!
- We are planning a virtual and on-site grand opening in the next few weeks. We will keep you updated on our progress.
► We are both excited and humbled by your response to our fund drive for the new kitchen. Thanks to your remarkable generosity, we have raised:
$8,818.81 for the kitchen
$4,077.00 for meal share
$2,050.00 for wherever money is needed
$14,945.81
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!! Your kindness supplies our kitchen now, and creates a community of service for the future. It is also enormously powerful for us to know that so many generous people support our work. Thank you!
► Meal count: Last weekend, which was week 45 of serving bagged, COVID-safe meals, we served 99 breakfasts and over 90 dinners.
► Thanks to our offsite volunteers who supplied the meals the previous weekend:
Lyndee L. Lindsey (left) of the Coveted Caterer cooked a breakfast frittata and carrot coconut cake that served 120 people; and Pam Bergeron, Cindy Stokes (L-R) and the St. Petersburg Women’s Club Evening Group cooked and delivered lasagna, coleslaw and garlic bread for 90.
Their work gave volunteer cook Mary and our stalwart regulars a much-needed break, and it gave our clients delicious meals.
► Thanks also to our on-site volunteers such as Kedra Walker and her daughters Gabby and Aly (above).
Our facility is improving, but our number of on-site volunteers has declined, especially on Saturday mornings. We need people to:
- fill cups, make sandwiches, wrap food, fill bags, and serve
- wash dishes (in our new sinks!) and clean up the facility. Help cleaning up after the meals is especially needed
- prepare the shelving and other equipment. (It’s all new to us, some is used equipment that needs a scrub.
Please consider volunteering, and ask people and groups you know. Join us for all or part of the meal. Call me at (727) 894-2832 or e-mail sjstew@gte.net for details.
► We also need people who can prepare or provide food from off-site. Volunteers can cook the food themselves, or purchase and deliver already prepared food, such as roasted chickens, fruit, trays of frozen lasagna, etc. If you or a group is interested in providing food prepared off-site, call Mary at (727) 397-6107 to find out how you can help.
Our work is very satisfying, and answers a great need in our community. It is also becoming easier as our kitchen improves.
Thanks again to everyone for their support!
John Stewart,
Volunteer Coordinator