Hot in the Kitchen!

WOW! Summer had arrived and it was definitely warm in the kitchen! The Community Mennonite Fellowship Church helped to serve the salisbury steak meal with some help from our new summer helpers, Jasmine, Jessie and Ben (not new but ever important!). This meal was one of our "pantry meals" where we were able to create the meal from what we had in the pantry and in the freezer. No meal next week to give our volunteers the opportunity to celebrate the holiday. We will be back in June when Sydney Steeler joins us for another summer working with the Lewisburg Community Garden.


We conquered the monster size mixer to make the mashed potatoes!

Some of the CMF volunteers!



Our "tropical" themed fruit with pineapple and mandarin oranges!

Start of Summer?

The weather couldn't make it's mind if it was summer or not today! For the cooler weather, we had some great loaded tomato vegetable soup made by Stacey and Richard to go with BBQ sandwiches.

We were using up some of our donated vegetables so we had so many many cans left, which Richard cleaned diligently!

Sadly, our regular students are gone for the summer but this signals the arrivals of our summer students who will join Ben in the garden this summer. Jessie and Jasmine have already started and Sydney will be joining them soon!

Jasmine chopping some green peppers for the salad.

Jessie working on the lettuce for the salad









Our group of eager volunteers was from St. John's UCC in Lewisburg! Enjoy some pictures!

Sunshine and lots of energy!

Tonight we had the pleasure of working with the St. Andrew's Youth Group as for our volunteers! They always bring a great deal of energy as they sing to Rihanna's latest tunes and help with all the meal tasks.

The meal was picnic themed with hot dogs, baked beans, coleslaw and SO MANY ORANGES!

 

Please enjoy the other pictures from the meal!

 

 

 

 

Some yummy desserts donated by the St. Andrew's Fellowship group!

 

 

Fruit Palooza!

This week we were surrounded by boxes and boxes of fresh fruit from the local produce aution!

 The partrons seemed to really enjoy the fresh fruit option- we went through two big containers!

 

Luckily, we have many skilled volunteers that can chop and make the fruit a yummy creation!

 

 

Julian and Eric from Sig Ep fraterntiy also pitched with dessert and clean up!

Study breakin'

Things are starting to wind down for the student volunteers as we prepare for finals and the end of the school year. And what better way to take a break from seemingly infinite school work than to head on over to the coolest spot in Milton? That's right, I'm talking about Community Harvest!

First things first, set up. This is where the manual labor comes in. And you know what they say, "sun's out, guns out." Carly shows off some superb upper-body strength as she navigates the tables into the elevator. Anyone who has done this before knows it is no easy task, but that doesn't keep the smile off Carly's face.

Next comes the food prep. This week's meal was the infamous shepherd's pie. First, we prepared the meat and veggies with some help from Julian and Pete of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity.

Then, we made some mashed potatoes with our industrial-size mixer, which appears to be quite the intriguing process for our newcomer, Reed, from Phi Kappa Psi fraternity.

Speaking of industrial-size, let's not forget about our Community Harvest cauldrons that take over the stove. This week, they were used for the veggies.

And now for dessert. We served Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity's homemade cupcakes along with cheesecake that was generously donated to us. We also made peanut butter and chocolate rice krispy treats to be served at next week's meal (always thinkin' ahead).

We had help with serving from Phi Kappa Psi and Delta Upsilon fraternities. And let's not forget about Richard, who stacks trays like a champ, week after week.

Overall, another successful week at Community Harvest. Tune in next week for another addition of study breakin' at Community Harvest!

Goin' green!

The weather is warming up here in central PA and that means we're putting the harvest back in Community Harvest. This week was all about the GREENS.

Carly and I got the salad started with some lettuce choppin'. Just in case you weren't aware, the inside of lettuce slightly resembles a human brain. How fitting that they're called heads of lettuce, right? Are you blown away yet?

But quality salads like the ones we serve up at Community Harvest are not complete without a good dose of fresh veggies.

(The final product is quite a masterpiece, if I do say so myself.)

And just in case you REAAALLLLY like veggies, we sliced up some carrots to be cooked and served with the barbecue pork sandwiches.

This week, I had the honor of serving the meal along with volunteers from Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity and Delta Gamma sorority. Here's an exclusive sneak peek of the behind-the-scenes serving process.

And if you eat enough veggies, you might even be fast enough to compete with Alicia in the pool. 

A Pocketful of Sunshine

The weather is warming up, reminding us that summer is right around the corner. And the sunshine is definitely bringing positive vibes to Community Harvest. This week's meal was biscuits with chicken/veggie gravy, mixed vegetables, and pears.

Apparently, the sunshine also brought productivity our way. Lynn prepared some pork for next week's meal. Always thinking ahead!

And don't worry, the girl scout cookies haven't gone anywhere. This week, they joined rice crispy treats and pastries at the dessert table.

We even had time to indulge in some of life's simple pleasures, namely applesauce, Tag-Along's, and Uno.

Our friends from Management 101 came back this week to help with the meal, and some volunteers from Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity lent a hand with the clean up process.

And if the combination of great weather and the usual Monday afternoon shenanigans isn't enough to make you smile, I don't know what is.

See ya next week!