Thank You Trader Joe's!

Today's lunch of roast beef, rice and seasoned tomatoes and cucumber.

The majority of the food we served today at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral's Wednesday Community Meal was kindly donated by Trader Joe's on NW Glisan Street. The store gave us six small beef roasts and more than 40 packages of pastrami and thinly sliced roast beef, expensive proteins that helped us serve 314 meals for under 80-cents each.

We served the tender roast to the first group of guests who were seated, with sides of rice and sliced and seasoned tomatoes and cucumber. The very first guest in line had been waiting since 7 a.m. this morning so it felt great to treat him to a wonderful lunch.

Pastrami and roast beef sandwiches topped with sauerkraut and cheese came later during the two-hour lunch service and were also well-received in the dining room.  We served them alongside crispy oven-roasted potatoes that we seasoned with garlic, oregano, chili powder, salt and pepper.

The sandwiches we served today came with a side of crispy oven-roasted potatoes.

Also on the menu today were teriyaki chicken skewers, baked white fish, pork tenderloin, sliced beef over rice and salmon burgers that we topped with tartar sauce, capers and fresh dill. Utilizing primarily donated food to feed a crowd is always a challenge but it's a satisfying one. It means we have to be creative and change our menu frequently to use what we have but the extra work is worth it —  it saves money and stops perfectly good food from going to waste. And, the very best part is that we made a lot of hungry people happy today.