Monday, February 6, 2012

Cheese, Cheese, and more Cheese

Break has been wonderful, but we are feeling a little off our groove this week. Garyn and I arrive late because of our class schedule this semester so the kids from across the street already set up the tables. (I will sorely miss setting up with them all.) Danielle is still figuring out her schedule which is keeping her on campus this week. Carly is studying abroad this semester and Angel can't come until later. I miss our old team; its not the same without everyone from last semester. But some new people have joined us as weekly set up help, which is exciting!

We meet Lynn in the kitchen and after catching up on breaks, we realize we have a problem-- what in the world do we make tonight? One of the things about a soup kitchen that most people do not think about-- bulk amounts of strange ingredients. When you open the freezer to a ton of frozen peas, walk into the dry good room to find some cans of soup and random vegetables, and the refrigerator to a couple gallons of cheese and need-to-be-used-right-now salad vegetables, what do you make? Between keeping a tight budget and accepting all kinds of donations, we often end up with an eclectic collection of food. Lynn and other volunteer cooks spend hours trying to come up with balanced and nutritious meals each week using what we have. This week-- grilled cheese. The manager of the bison came to make about 200 Bucknell-style Texas Toast Grilled Cheeses, which were absolutely delicious. That finally made a dent in our cheese collection, and the rest was thrown into a salad. Add in a couple huge cans of chicken noodle soup, and we are in business. The peas can wait until next week.

It is so good to see everyone again; all the community members are so glad to have us back. They ask all about school, classes, families, and what we did over break. I remember how much there really is a sense of community here. I am having so much fun finding out how everyone's holidays were, and what they excited for for this year. A few people did not make it this week, so I am asking their friends how they are doing. We had a pretty good turn out despite the cold weather-- just under 200 people, so there was still enough for seconds.

Everyone is finishing up, and more volunteers from ADPhi come to help with clean up, which is much appreciated. We finish up and hop into cars to jump back into the swing of the campus life of meetings, classes, and homework. I realize that Community Harvest is such a wonderful break in my Bucknell routine-- it is good to be back.