An Early Easter Meal

We had an early Easter celebration today at The Wednesday Community Meal and served an extra special entree of mustard-glazed pork loin and crispy oven-roasted potatoes.

Usually we have to change our menu multiple times to utilize the ingredients we glean, but today we served the same entree throughout our entire two-hour lunch service.

The ingredients for the meal were donated by Trinity Episcopal Cathedral and our guests were very appreciative and complimentary.

Just out of the oven, mustard-glazed pork loin.

Also receiving raves was a homemade horseradish sauce that we added to the plates. One guest even asked me for the recipe — It's just sour cream, horseradish sauce, fresh parsley, salt and black pepper mixed together. Super easy and really delicious!

We served 377 meals today.

Volunteers John and Mary came in early at 7 a.m. to help with all the tedious prep work. In the foreground are the pork loins that we cooked today.

Davis assembled the oven s'mores that we served for dessert and he sliced all of the pork loins that we served.

My daughter Eleanor with our friend Bob, who was so sweet and brought us each a box of Easter chocolate. Eleanor has known Bob her entire life. I first met Bob a little over 16 years ago when I began volunteering at the Trinity Food Pantry and Eleanor was a newborn baby, strapped to me in her baby carrier.

Mixing It Up!

A serving of the chili we made today.

One of the most popular entrees at today's The Wednesday Community Meal was created by just mixing up small amounts of food gleaned from Good Samaritan Hospital to create a large amount of something new.

That something new was a hearty chili and we made it from small portions of shredded pork, sliced beef, black beans and corn that was all donated by the hospital. 

After looking our gleaned ingredients and doing a little brainstorming,  my fellow volunteer Mary and I decided it would be most practical to combine all of them with some more beans and canned tomatoes from our pantry to make a big single dish. We also seasoned it with chili powder, garlic powder and ground cumin.

So what initially looked like small amounts of food suddenly became a big pan of a meaty and flavorful chili that we heated, served over rice and topped with peppers, green onions and shredded cheese.

It really is a great feeling when you not only save perfectly good food from going to waste but you create a delicious new dish. 

We served 413 meals today.

Rotating Entrees

If you join us at The Wednesday Community Meal, you'll quickly learn that our entrees are always a changing.

We seat six to a table and it's common for guests to have a different entree than their tablemates. And, that's just the way it has to be because most of the food we serve is gleaned from our community partners — Good Samaritan Hospital, Phil's Uptown Meat Market, Pizza Schmizza, Ken's Artisan Bakery, Grand Central Bakery, New Seasons Market, Trader Joe's, Starbucks, SP Provisions and The Oregon Food Bank.  Utilizing gleaned food serves two purposes, it keeps our costs down and it prevents perfectly good food from going to waste.

Our regular guests are so understanding of the quirky rotating entree part of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral's free for everyone meal. I've even been told that it adds a little excitement to their dining experience. 

"What you serve is always a surprise." said one of today's guests. "I thought I was going to get the ribs but I got turkey and that was pretty good."

The one thing that is consistent is that we always do our best to serve a delicious and nutritious meal. And, we strive to accommodate dietary needs such as vegetarian, vegan and even gluten-free.

We served 279 meals today. Here are some of them:

The first guests in the door today got oven roasted chicken made by volunteer Terri. Oh my gosh it looked good, magazine cover good! The whole chicken was gleaned from Trader Joe's.

The barbecue ribs we served came from Good Samaritan Hospital.

The turkey also came from Good Samaritan Hospital. The potatoes came from The Oregon Food Bank and we made the kale and cabbage side dish from greens gleaned from New Seasons Market.

We made lamb meatballs from ground lamb from SP Provisions.

The chicken fried steak also came from SP Provisions.

Holiday Treats

Besides being served a well-rounded hot lunch,  today's Wednesday Community Meal guests also got to enjoy live holiday music and were given gift bags filled with toiletries, socks, gloves and scarves.

The music was courtesy of Sandy Norcross, our wonderful and dedicated volunteer piano player, and the gift bags were put together by Trinity Episcopal Cathedral fifth graders who collected donations. Both of these special holiday treats were greatly appreciated by our guests.

Like the the rest of the week, it rained heavily today which kept many of our regular guests who have housing, away from the meal. Those who joined us were primarily the homeless, and they trekked through awful wet weather to attend.

When one of our regular volunteers came in early this morning to help she told me there were three men already in line and that they looked cold and down and suggested that it would be nice to bring them each a hot drink. It was a great idea and when we handed them cups of steaming hot chocolate, they were very pleased. Sometimes small treats can make a big difference.

We served 289 meals.

We were lucky to have extra help in the dining room today from many young volunteers who were on break from school.

Craig and Dan (a.k.a Santa) were our coffee and hot chocolate baristas in the dining room today.

Scarlett helped pass out peppermint candies to guests.

Today's lunch of homemade chili, potatoes and roasted tomatoes.

After eating, guests bus their own dishes. Look at those clean plates!