Wednesday Community Meal Behind the Scenes
Wednesday nights are fast and furious. And I mean that in a good way! Let me take you through a typical Wednesday night through my eyes. Buckle up, we move fast and get things done!
Twice a month, Michael Colter cooks dinner for us. We team up and talk through some ideas. I submit an online grocery order, he picks it up and prepares the meal for us. Which is tricky because we just never know how many people will be at dinner that night. Sometimes 40, sometimes 70, like last week!
That leaves two more weeks that we serve a mid week meal. One week we order from Blimpie’s, a locally owned sandwich shop. The last week of the month, we have a potluck and invite families to contribute something to our meal, if they are able to. We’ve had a make your own sub sandwich theme, we’ve done a taco bar and most recently, a hot dog bar, which used the leftover frozen hotdogs from last fall’s block party.
Noah and I get to church around 5:15 and we get right to work. He fills water pitchers and pours water into 36 glasses for those that drink water with dinner. There’s lots of scurrying around to get everything set up for dinner, getting plates, silverware and any serving utensils we might need. The compost bins are set out, the trash cans are checked that they have bags in them and the dishwasher is turned on so it can heat up properly. Usually a student life teen or two will wander in and they always take down the chairs and set them up at the tables, without being asked.
Food is set out. Almost everything is done at this point. People are starting to gather. We circle up to pray and hear any special announcements before we eat, which always includes a reminder to compost our plates and any food waste. Dinner is served!
What others might not know is, this meal isn’t just for our church families and children. It’s for those people that wander down the hall after visiting Philip’s Cupboard. The volunteers that staff Philip’s Cupboard always encourage them to stay for dinner. Some do, some don’t. Some of them walk in and ask what they can do to help as we get ready. Some are just grateful for a warm, dry place to sit and rest a minute before eating dinner. We’ve also had a few people that walk in and tell us they heard they could get a meal here and we welcome them with open arms. And I’ve noticed that our visitors never sit alone. Other families invite them to their table or sometimes they move to join them. Sometimes there is a request to take home any leftovers we might have and we always find a container and help them package it up.
Once I sit down to eat, I always take a quick look around and smile. Everyone is eating dinner, some kids are running around and there is a whole lot of fellowship going on in Fellowship Hall.