Tuesday Mornings Meals on Wheels

Tuesday mornings I volunteer as one of the cooks for  Meals On Wheels, at my church. We are an awesome group. A few months ago, the main chapter for Tampa Bay, wanted us to give up our " clients", so they could take over more clients.

Now, mind you. they have a professional chef, an entire building with kitchen, and volunteers to prepare a LOT of meals 5 days a week. The organization gets funded for this process, at this facility, and the only paid staff is the chef.

Our group does not assembly line cook, and our drivers are all volunteers, as well. The  MOW of Tampa, wanted our drivers to go pick up meals daily in the main facility, a lengthy drive, and of course more expense to them. Much of our food, is donated by church members in our community, and some is purchased by the head cook of the day, and reimbursed by MOW national. Our group can receive up to 2.50 a meal in funding, which is supposed to be paid by our clients when they can. 30% can, the other 70% do not or cannot. We do not spend $2.50 a meal, so, we do not ask for more than we spend. Our group usually can prepare 50 meals for $50-$70.00.  The Tampa facility collects from MOW org, $4.50 per meal, whether the clients pay or not.  It's a business. We are a ministry. Yeah, we rock.

There are 19 churches in my area that participate in our group, serving about 200 plus meals a day, to those who have applied for the service, and cannot get out to purchase food, or possibly cannot prepare a hot meal. 4 churches per day, make the food, so, we only have 1 day a week of service per church, serving about 40-60 meals per day, 5 days a week, with 6 or so volunteers in the kitchen, and 5 drivers. The Tampa group prepares about 700 meals per day.

We LOVE what we do, we feel it is our ministry, and our group has a fellowship to gather each week, choosing a meal , purchasing the foods, and serving it hot.  Our food not only looks awesome, it TASTES awesome, and our clients LOVE us. We LOVE them.

We did not want to become part of the mass production lines, and in fact, this move would have left our cooks, without a mission. They would not need us. No way. Fortunately, there was a vote.. you guessed it, we voted NO! So, we go on, and are grateful for that.

Today, we prepared Ham and Spaghetti Pie... they had mixed vegetables, and dinner roll on the side. We prepared a fresh fruit salad, and they also got a dessert bag full of goodies.  (Recipe in this blog.)

Make NO mistake, they do an great job, and provide a much needed, and appreciated service, at the Tampa facility. Still... Them>>>

2 of " Their" meals

 

Not us, but, LIKE us, lol church MOW cooks

Sample of 1 of our church meals. We also give them either green or fruit salad

The 2 pics of typical local church meals we deliver. I know which one I prefer.. So, we are delighted to be able to continue with our mission, with passion and commitment. Our clients are happy as well.

I use a tool called My Kitchen Calculator to convert my recipes to our larger volumes:
http://www.mykitchencalculator.com/recipeconverter.html


This recipe for Spaghetti-Ham Pie, by Janna Hammond, is from Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School Cookbook, one of the cookbooks created at FamilyCookbookProject.com. We help families or individuals create heirloom cookbook treasures.

Contributor:	Janna Hammond Added: Sunday, June 16, 2013
Category:	Main Dishes
Ingredients:	6 oz spaghetti, uncooked  ( we break the spaghetti into thirds before we cook it.) 4 cloves garlic minced 2½ tablespoon olive oil ¼ cup flour ¼ teaspoon salt ⅛ teaspoon pepper ¾ cup half-and-half 1½ cup milk ¼ to ½ cup chopped cooked ham ¼ cup Parmesan cheese, grated, divided ( we used Pecorino, fresh grated)
Directions:	Cook spaghetti according to package directions; drain. Set aside. Cook garlic in olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat, stirring constantly, 5 minutes. Stir in flour, salt, and pepper. Cook, stirring constantly, 1 minute. Gradually add half-and-half and milk; cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thickened and bubbly. Stir in spaghetti. Spoon half of spaghetti mixture into a lightly grease 9-inch pie plate; sprinkle with ham and 2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese. Top with remaining spaghetti mixture, and sprinkle with remaining 2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese. Bake at 425° for 15 to 20 minutes or until lightly browned. Serves 6

To learn more about Meals on Wheels, click here:   http://www.mealsonwheelsamerica.org/national