Special Touches

A pretty salad with a sprinkling of chive blossoms.

Serving hundreds during a two hour lunch service at the Wednesday Community Meal means that we pretty much always have a hopping kitchen and dining room. But that doesn't mean we are too busy to skimp on presentation and just shovel out the food.

When guests arrive at our free, everyone is welcome, weekly meal, they are first greeted by our kind maidre'd Michael, and just like in a restaurant, are seated at a table, already set with placemats, napkins and silverware.

Once seated, six to a table, guests are served four courses by volunteer servers — salad, soup, entree and dessert. They are also offered coffee, tea and hot chocolate by our volunteer baristas, Dean and Dan.

Today we served 356 meals and I can honestly say every one was plated with care and had a special touch like a garnish of fresh chives over ribs or a drizzle of cheese sauce over roasted beans. Putting care into the food is important and we are so blessed to have a large team of volunteers who work hard to make our guests feel special.

We also used chives to garnish the ribs we served today.

The salads we served today were especially beautiful and topped with homemade croutons made from bread donated by Grand Central Bakery and a sprinkling of sweet just-picked chive blossoms.

It's wonderful working together as a team to make nice and deserving people feel treated.

Here are some pictures of our great team taken today by volunteer Cheryl who every week makes the desserts for the meal as well as keeps things running smoothly in the dining room.

Our hardworking volunteer baristas, Dean and Dan.

Two members of our super dishwashing team, Kevin and Bill.

Our maitre'd Michael and Fred who is in charge of the whole operation. Fred doesn't just volunteer on Wednesdays, he works pretty much every single day of the week, making sure we have everything we will need for a successful meal. And Michael does more as well, he orders all the food we get from The Oregon Food Bank.

I look forward to seeing my lovely friend Veronica each Wednesday. She comes to eat but also pitches in by busing dishes.