Carrots, Carrots And More Carrots

The Wednesday Community Meal Carrot Team: Ann, Davis, Terri, Linda and Madeline.

There were lots of carrots at today's Wednesday Community Meal.

There were carrots in the salads, roasted carrots as a side dish and carrot ginger cake for dessert.

I am thankful for the wonderful volunteers who spent a large chunk of today's prep time, in the corner of the kitchen, peeling and slicing the pounds and pounds of carrots that our gleaners picked up from The Oregon Food Bank.

It was especially tedious work because the carrots were small and some even came in unusual shapes which made them difficult to peel.

For fun and motivation, volunteer Linda, who has a great sense of humor and is so clever, lined up the more interesting carrots on the window sill above the work station.

 "It's a carrot family," she said.

It even looked like they were waving, being friendly and encouraging us to keep on peeling.

We served 284 meals today.

The friendly carrot family.

The Evolution of Mac 'n Cheese

A serving of homemade mac 'n cheese. Also on the plate is barbecued chicken and roasted zucchini.

Guests at today's Wednesday Community Meal were treated to homemade mac 'n cheese. Each week, I have to decide what to make based on what's been gleaned, what's in the pantry and what's on sale. My aim is always to create something that's pleasing, nutritious and affordable.

So this week I decided to make mac 'n cheese and here's why:

Last Wednesday, we served cornbread donated by New Seasons Market with the soup and there were lots of extra crumbs left over, at least three cups worth. Volunteer Martha wrapped them, gave them to me, and asked, "Can you use these next week? I'd hate to throw them out." "Yes," I said, thinking they would make a great crispy topping for a casserole.

On Friday, volunteer Dave, who also volunteers at Lift Urban Portland, asked me if I could use some donated boxes of matzo crackers. I said, "yes," thinking if I crushed them, they would also be perfect for a crispy topping.

On Saturday, I catered a memorial reception and was gifted all of the leftover cheeses to use for the community meal. I immediately thought of using the cheese to make some yummy mac 'n cheese. There was medium cheddar, havarti, muenster, sharp cheddar and I already had some Swiss in the pantry fridge, gosh this was going to be good!

On Monday, while gleaning at New Seasons Market with my fellow community meal organizer, Fred, we picked up a few gallons of milk and some containers of chopped onions. My idea for mac 'n cheese was coming together nicely. I just needed a few more items.

On Tuesday, I went to Cash 'n' Carry and purchased two cases of dried macaroni, two more gallons of milk, fresh parsley and a box of roma tomatoes. For color and nutrition, I wanted to top the mac 'n cheese with sliced tomatoes. The total cost of the purchased ingredients was $43.25.

The mac 'n cheese came together wonderfully— volunteer Terri helped me make nine hotel pans of it and all of our guests got a taste. We served it as a main entree or as a side for everyone. We served 297 meals today.

Cold And Hungry

The Wednesday Community Meal's indispensable team of volunteer dishwashers. Thank you Steve, Jay, Bill, Kevin and Dave!

It's been an especially rough week for Portland's homeless community.

A Sunday snowstorm and ensuing freezing rain resulted in the Monday and Tuesday closures of most of our community's food agencies, including The Food Pantry at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral.

So our homeless friends not only had to face harsh weather conditions, they had to face food scarcity for days. 

It was such a relief to wake up this morning to clear roads and know that The Wednesday Community Meal would happen. Our guests needed us. 

"Thank for for what you do, I was really hungry," said one of our guests as he was leaving today.  I am so happy that we were able to help.

I am also thankful for all of our dedicated volunteers who each Wednesday cook, serve, clean and wash dishes. It takes many hands to pull off an "everyone is welcome," free meal and we are blessed to have the help of so many nice volunteers.

We served 296 meals today.

Hamburgers For Everyone

Today's lunch.

We served hamburgers, which proved to be a very popular lunch, at today's Wednesday Community Meal. We were non-stop busy from the moment we opened our doors at 11 a.m. and served 368 meals during our two hour service.

When I told one of our guests who was in line early what we would be serving he smiled and the man standing behind him responded with an enthusiastic "Yes!".

The Cascade Farms hamburger patties were donated to us by Lift Urban Portland and Trinity Episcopal Cathedral provided the buns, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes and condiments.

The cathedral and its members are so generous and supportive of the weekly meal and fund extra necessary purchases. It's not just food they provide — they also provide the paper placemats, napkins, cups, foil, plastic wrap... and more....anything that we need to make the weekly free to everyone meal happen. Trinity also lets us use their commercial kitchen and serve in their large beautiful dining room.

My two full carts at Cash 'n' Carry on Tuesday, shopping for the additional ingredients and supplies that we needed for today's meal.

Alongside the hamburgers, we served Tim' Cascade chips and grapes. There was also soup, salad, dessert and drinks. Thanks to Trinity and Lift Urban Portland, it was a tasty and satisfying meal for our hungry friends.

Happy To Serve Inside

Cindy, Leo, Dorrie and Courtney were part of a great team of volunteers who worked in the dining room today. Serving hundreds of meals during the two hour service is hard work, but they make it look easy, and they always have a smile for our guests.

I'm so happy we were able to go back to serving Trinity Episcopal's Wednesday Community Meal inside today. We served sack lunches last week due to the dining room being set up for the Cathedral's Community Thanksgiving Meal. 

It's been terribly cold and rainy here in Portland and the weekly respite of a hot, sit down meal in a warm dining room is so important, especially to our homeless guests.

Those who joined us today were treated to oven-baked chicken with rice, gravy, roasted vegetables and melon. There was also soup, salad, dessert and lots of hot coffee and cocoa.
 

Today's lunch.

We served 261 meals today.

Warm Bread

Today we served 340 lunches at Trinity Episcopal's Wednesday Community Meal and the highlight of of every plate was warm, just baked bread.

The bread was donated to us by Good Samaritan Hospital and came par baked and frozen. The hospital gave us three cases and it was so simple to prepare. All we had to do was bake it for 5 minutes in a 350-degree oven and voila! — fresh bread!

As the one who in the past has made bread dough from scratch for the meal, I can't even begin so say what a convenience this was.

In the hopes that we could get away with serving the bread without butter, we topped it with a bit of cheese, minced garlic and parsley before baking. Our plan worked and the guests loved it.

One man came up to the window as he was leaving and asked if he could have some more bread to go. When I handed it to him he said, "oh my,  it's still warm," and gave me the biggest smile.

Warm bread is spirit lifting and was exactly what our guests needed on this damp Portland day.

Great Gleaning

Desserts gleaned from New Seasons Market.

Just like last week, had lots of good luck with our gleaning for Trinity Episcopal Cathedral's Wednesday Community Meal and were able to keep our costs low.

Thanks to three local businesses, today's dessert course was well covered. From the New Seasons Market on NW Raleigh, we got brownies, cupcakes, tarts, and cakes; from the Trader Joe's on NW Glisan we got pies and cheesecake; and from Ken's Artisan Bakery we got chocolate chunk cookies and an assortment of buttery pastries and tarts. 

All of the soup and entrees we served today were courtesy of Lift Urban Portland, Good Samaritan Hospital, Phil's Uptown Meat Market and The Oregon Food Bank. Because of their generosity, our guests today got treated to sliced pork, leg of lamb, chicken, salmon, crab cakes and as a side, tortellini that we baked in a cheesy red sauce and topped with oven roasted tomatoes.

Trinity Episcopal Cathedral purchased the ingredients for the salads that we served. 

An entree of sliced pork, tortellini and green beans.

But that's not all, as guests were leaving, we handed out bananas and the cutest little red delicious apples that our gleaners picked up from The Oregon Food Bank. 

Our gleaners picked up a case of these cute red delicious apples from The Oregon Food Bank.

Thanks to the work of our gleaners and volunteers and the generosity of our community partners and Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, we served 277 meals today.

A Fantastic Bargain Of A Meal

A meal of beef fajitas.

The most expensive part of putting on the Wednesday Community Meal is buying the protein. It's hard to find donations of lean meat. So typically each week, Trinity Episcopal Cathedral purchases it for the free-for-everyone weekly meal.

Of course, there's a budget that we need to stay within, so we shop sales and look for deals. We usually buy pork or chicken.  

Beef is the protein that rarely makes an appearance on our menu. But today was different. The best part: It was all free!

Our guests were able to enjoy homemade beef fajitas because of donations of high-quality beef from two of our wonderful community partners, Lift Urban Portland and Good Samaritan Hospital.

Lift Urban Portland donated two giant roasts; Good Samaritan Hospital gave us 40 six-ounce steaks.

We chose to make fajitas because we knew slicing the beef thin and adding peppers, onions and tomatoes would make it go farther, feeding more people.

After the beef fajitas, we served chili-topped baked potatoes, chicken skewers, meatloaf, ribs, chicken curry and ham. The latter was a gorgeous spiral cut ham from Whole Foods, donated by a Trinity parishioner.

A ham meal.

All of the proteins we served today were donated and helped us stay way under budget. Here's the breakdown: We spent $149.08 on ingredients for today's meal and served 398! That's soup, salad, entree, dessert and drinks for .37 cents a person! It was delicious, too.

Tortellini For Everyone

Guests at today's Wednesday Community Meal enjoyed lots of pasta thanks to a donation of 12 cases of Buitoni Tortellini.

We cooked seven of the cases today and had plenty for everyone and even some leftover that we packaged up for our guests to take with them. One guest hollered out to me when he saw me in the dining room, "Hey Heidi, thanks for lunch and dinner!" I'm just glad that nothing went to waste. We froze the remaining five cases of tortellini and will utilize them in a future meal.

After boiling all of the pasta (Thank you Sam for taking on the tough task!), we tossed it in a homemade sauce filled with tomatoes, ground beef, sauteed onion, zucchini, artichokes, garlic and herbs. It turned out delicious and we received many nice compliments from our guests. Alongside the pasta we served garlic toast, roasted vegetables and melon. The bread for the toast was donated by Grand Central Bakery, the vegetables came from the Oregon Food Bank and the melon was gleaned from the recently opened New Seasons Market in NW Portland. 

It's always a surprise discovering what ingredients we have to work with and I'm grateful for the work of our gleaners and the donations we receive which help offset the cost of feeding hundreds each week.

Trinity Episcopal Cathedral has been so supportive and purchases any additional ingredients and supplies that we need to pull the meal together. It takes a lot of planning and work but everything always comes together thanks to our dedicated volunteers. We served 384 meals today.

The Importance Of Soup

A comforting bowl of hot soup ready to be served.

We serve hot soup year-round at The Wednesday Community Meal but this is the start of the time of year when the temperature drops and soup does double duty because besides nourishing our guests, it warms them up. A hearty bowl of comforting soup is especially important to our homeless guests who struggle to stay warm.

Most of the soup we serve is gleaned from Good Samaritan Hospital and this is a huge help when it comes to putting together the weekly meal. Having premade soups saves us loads of preparation time and we always get a good variety, everything from basics like chicken noodle and beef barley to more exotic kinds like sweet and sour and corn chowder.  Longtime volunteer Martha is an absolute whiz at heating and serving the soup, she's been doing it regularly for years, and even sometimes combines soups to create a one of a kind special blend that always pleases. She's a pro!

Volunteer Martha at her soup station. She always goes out of her way to make every bowl beautiful with a garnish, sometimes it's shredded cheese and croutons, today it was parsley and a slice of French bread.

In addtion to the soup, we offered salad and entrees of hot turkey sandwiches, roast pork loin, teriyaki chicken skewers, orange chicken, fish and beef short ribs. There was also dessert and drinks of lemonade, coffee and hot chocolate.

We served 285 meals today.

Oven S'mores and Roasted Pork Loin

Today's entree of roasted pork loin.

It was a busy day at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral's Wednesday Community Meal. We served 371 meals and there was a constant line to get inside until the last half hour of our two-hour lunch service, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The first 140 guests were treated to an entree of roasted pork loin, rice and baked pears. The gorgeous lean pork loins were generously purchased by Trinity Episcopal Cathedral and turned out so tender and delicious. We seasoned them with a homemade rub made with cumin, chili powder, garlic and salt and then baked them in a 325-degree oven until they were done and the outsides were golden brown crispy goodness. Then of course we had to make the meal even better by utilizing the drippings to make a rich gravy.

For dessert we served S'mores made in the oven. We just set graham crackers on a sheetpan, topped them with a large marshmallow and then put them in the oven for 3 minutes until the marshmallows were hot and soft. Then all we did was add a piece of Hershey's milk chocolate and another graham cracker and we had a dessert that the guests loved.

Topping the hot marshmallows with chocolate. These just need another graham cracker and they'll be ready to serve.

It was also fun to witness volunteer Dean having his very first taste of a S'more. He's 74 and had never had one before!

Dean after having his very first taste of a S'more which he said was delicious. He's so much fun!

Later, we served enchiladas, salmon, fried fish, chicken skewers and meatloaf, all donated by Good Samaritan Hospital. We are so blessed to have them as a gleaning partner.

Salmon donated by Good Samaritan Hospital.

We also offered everyone soup and salad. Longtime volunteer Martha took on heating and serving the soup and volunteer John made the salads that were extra special today because they were topped with crispy bacon and Parmesan cheese. It was a great meal.

The salads.

Chili Cheese Dogs And Crispy Potatoes

We weren't too busy at the Wednesday Community Meal today but guests who did join us for lunch at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in NW Portland enjoyed made-from-scratch chili cheese dogs and crispy oven-roasted potatoes.

We made the chili from donated dry beans that had soaked overnight, canned beans, onions and tomatoes. For seasoning, we added chili powder, cumin, garlic and salt and towards the end of cooking, snuck in some finely chopped kale for nutrition and color.

To serve, we added a scoop of the hot chili on top of an all-beef hotdog on a toasted bun and sprinkled on some cheese. It was a definite crowd pleaser — Quite a few guests asked for seconds and we were happy to oblige.

We served 272 meals today.

Striving To Serve Healthy Food

Volunteer Zane did a wonderful job slicing all of the pork tenderloin that we served today.

Lean, oven-roasted pork tenderloin was a highlight of today's Wednesday Community Meal at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral. Alongside the pork, we served baked potatoes, roasted vegetables, slices of cold watermelon and soup, salad and dessert.

Dessert today was warm, just-baked cake that volunteers Ava and Quinn sliced and topped with chocolate and chopped peanuts.

High-quality proteins and fresh fruits and vegetables are expensive to buy and what's usually lacking in our guest's diets so that's what we always strive to serve at Trinity's weekly free meal.  Our guests are primarily the homeless but we also serve the elderly, the working poor and families.

For the meal, we utilize gleaned ingredients as much as possible and then compete the meal with ingredients generously purchased by Trinity Episcopal Cathedral.

Lunch is served between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. and everyone is welcome, no questions asked. All you have to do is show up and I promise you will be greeted, seated and served. We served 366 meals today.

SPARKS Volunteers

The great SPARKS volunteers who helped us today, Jack, Sadie, Robyn (camp director) and Brooklyn.

We were fortunate to have the help of teens attending Trinity Episcopal Cathedral's SPARKS Community Service Camp at today's Wednesday Community Meal. This is the fourth year the campers have volunteered with us and as always, it was a wonderful experience. 

The campers were enthusiastic about helping and got right to work, serving in the dining room. They did a great job and also enjoyed lunch alongside our guests.

We served 305 meals today and had a full dining room for most of our two-hour service.  We changed our menu multiple time to utilize food gleaned from Good Samaritan Hospital, Phil's Uptown Meat Market, The Oregon Food Bank, Pizza Schmizza, Baker & Spice, Ken's Artisan Bakery, Grand Central Bakery and Starbucks.

The first guests got frittata, then there was enchilada casserole, beef stir fry, hot turkey and cheese sandwiches, beef curry and finally pizza. We had the perfect amount of food, just enough for everyone who joined us. 

An enchilada lunch.

A beef curry lunch.

A Summer Reunion

I am so happy that Ian and Nicholas came in to help today. They are hard workers and lots of fun!

I love it when school is out and young volunteers come in to help at The Wednesday Community Meal.

My daughter Eleanor and I were the first volunteers to arrive at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral this morning and I had hopes that other young volunteers would also come in to help, but I didn't want to get my heart set on it with it being the first week of the summer break. School did just get out and lets face it, sleeping in does sound pretty appealing.

I shouldn't have for a second doubted the dedication of our fantastic young volunteers.

By 8 a.m., Sierra was in the kitchen ready to get to work washing and dicing three cases of squash from the Oregon Food Bank. Eleanor took on making croutons for the salads and then I peeked out into the dining room and saw Ian had come in and was already helping to set up tables in the dining room. Before I knew it, Nicholas, Ava, Zane and Olivia were also in the kitchen helping.

It really is a pleasure to see volunteers of all ages, working together to feed the hungry in our community. Ian, Zane and Nicholas just graduated from high school and will soon be heading off to college and I hate to think this might be their last summer volunteering at the community meal.  They've been coming in to help for years and they are an absolute joy to work alongside.

On the menu today was soup, salad, chicken enchiladas, pork tamales, rice, roasted summer squash, fresh salsa and watermelon.

A meal of chicken enchiladas, rice, roasted summer squash, fresh salsa and watermelon.

Zane made the salsa by combining diced fresh tomatoes, onion and cilantro with donated containers of salsa from Trader Joe's and a jug of La Victoria salsa purchased by Trinity from Cash 'n' Carry. He carefully seasoned it with extra chili powder, cumin, garlic powder and salt and made honestly one of the best and freshest tasting salsas I've ever tasted. It really is amazing what you can create with a little of this, a little of that, an open mind and a positive attitude. Negativity can really ruin a dish and there's no room or time for that in a busy and productive kitchen.

Zane's one of a kind super salsa!

By the time it was ready to serve, we had three more young helpers join our crew — Aidan, Scarlett and Isla Blue.

It was a fun and productive day and we made a lot of hungry people happy. We served 337 meals during our two hour service.

Olivia, Eleanor and Sierra getting the juice station ready. Eleanor burned her hand on the oven and as a remedy, has cold yellow mustard on it, held on with a plastic glove and painter's tape. I know this looks and sounds strange but for mild burns, cold yellow mustard works like a charm to cool and heal.

Aidan and Ave dishing up the chocolate pudding for dessert.

Isla Blue helped Cindy serve dessert in the dining room. They make the best team!

In addition to making the salsa, Zane cooked all of the pork tamales which were generously donated by Trader Joe's. He cooked every single one perfectly. Eleanor is alongside him, getting a plate of food for her lunch break.

Breakfast For Lunch

We served breakfast for lunch at the Wednesday Community Meal today.

On the menu was frittata that we made from scratch and filled with potato, spinach, peppers, onions, shallots and garlic. Alongside the frittata, we served breakfast sausage and oven roasted tomatoes. Guests also were offered soup, salad and apple crisp for dessert.

The weather in Portland has been very hot so the cool dining room was a comfortable place to be.  Many of the guests lingered longer today and asked for seconds which we were happy to oblige.  We always try our best to please our guests and fulfill their requests because it's the right thing to do. Plus, saying "yes" feels so much better than saying "no."

We served 290 meals today.

Fresh Blackberries

Volunteers Mary and Leah with the best blackberries.

Guests at today's Wednesday Community Meal were treated to the best blackberries I have ever tasted, and I mean it. They were biggest, sweetest and juiciest blackberries and amazingly they were free thanks to our wonderful volunteer gleaners Ed, Joe and Bill who found them for us at The Oregon Food Bank.

The blackberries were in perfect condition.

Usually the gleaned produce we receive is good but in all honesty needs to be eaten ASAP. I seriously don't know these blackberries ended up at the food bank because they weren't even close to going bad. They were in their prime and we had four flats of them!  We used them to garnish the salads and also served them as a dessert option along with homemade marble cake made by volunteer Cheryl. 

The beautiful salads we served today were made by volunteers John, Leah and Craig.

Our main entree today was pigs in a blanket made with all beef hotdogs and homemade crescent dough. We also served crispy tater tots which thrilled our guests. There were quite a few special requests for "another plate of tots," and we happily obliged. We had plenty of food and we weren't too busy with it being the first Wednesday of the month.

We served 215 meals today.

A pig in a blanket with tater tots and a tomato cucumber salad.

We were lucky to have the help of Isla Blue in the dining room. She worked with volunteer Mary Ann, serving the desserts.

Volunteer Linda who besides working in the kitchen, gleans for us each week from Good Samaritan Hospital and Phil's Uptown Meat Market, dished up every single bowl of the soup we served today.

Down To The Wire

It took some real frantic scrambling to be ready to serve promptly at 11 a.m. today when the doors of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral were opened for guests of the Wednesday Community Meal.

Mixing the pork, rice, tomatoes, sauce and cilantro for a pan of enchiladas. We layered this mixture along with shredded cheese and flour tortillas in hotel pans and baked them until bubbly.  This method of basically making an "enchilada lasagna" works really well when feeding a crowd.

Today's meal of pork enchiladas was a real hit with our guests but boy were they labor intensive. And, they were designed on the fly this morning while trying to utilize the ingredients we had on hand — rice, onions, tortillas, tomato sauce and cheese. 

To make them also required a major shopping trip to Cash 'n' Carry for pork and additional ingredients like cilantro, fresh tomatoes and extra cheese. Volunteer Dave as usual saved the day by running to the store for the necessary ingredients while we worked hard to get organized to make 10 hotel pans of enchiladas.

At 9:30 a.m, the pork was still cooking and I knew that we were facing crunch time. We had to get at least four pans in the oven by 10 a.m.

All of the volunteers were so great and worked well under the pressure — Tomatoes, onions and cilantro were being chopped, pork was being shredded and enchilada sauce was being mixed. The kitchen was chaotic but we all endured, knowing we were making a delicious dish that would please our guests.

By 11 a.m., I was still making pans of enchiladas but we had enough out of the oven to start the meal. It was down to the wire,  but we did it!

We were very busy today and served 366 meals. There was a long line to get inside up until the last 20 minutes of our two hour service. But most importantly, our guests loved the food.

Delicious Treats

The focaccia we made and served today was topped with sliced pepperoni, red pepper and Parmesan cheese.

I love serving just-baked homemade bread at the Wednesday Community Meal. It does takes some extra effort to make the dough early enough so that it will be able to rise, be shaped and baked by the 11 a.m. start of the meal, but it's always well worth it.

Besides making the dining room smell wonderful and welcoming, the taste of warm bread makes our guests so happy.

It's also a real bargain for us to make. We get the flour from The Oregon Food Bank and then all we need to purchase is the yeast, sugar, oil and salt. I made 18 full recipes of foccacia today for less than $10.

A meal of chicken skewers, freekeh, green beans and foccacia. The uncooked freekeh,which is a cereal grain made from green wheat, was donated by Good Samaritan Hospital. I had never cooked or tasted freekah until today so it was a learning experience. It was very good and a nice change from rice and pasta.  We had to change our entree multiple times today but everyone got a piece of warm focaccia.

But that's not all, our guest today were also treated to big and beautiful fresh raspberries from The Oregon Food Bank. They were delivered to us this morning at 10 a.m., just in time to be utilized in today's lunch. We added them to the salads and served them in cups alongside slices of chocolate cake donated by Baker & Spice Bakery. It really was a delicious day!

Fresh raspberries and chocolate cake from Baker & Spice.

Here are some of the wonderful volunteers who helped serve 279 meals today at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral:

Cheryl and Dave help organize the weekly meal and are so dedicated. The meal simply wouldn't happen without them.  Cheryl cooked two whole turkey's for us to serve and Dave sliced the turkey and the giant ham that we served today. He's also part of our ace dishwashing team.

Cindy usually helps serve the dessert but we were short on kitchen volunteers today so she graciously pitched in to help plate food. She's wonderful and always willing to help wherever needed.

Bill and Leah are both dedicated longtime volunteers. Bill comes early to help set up the dining room and washes dishes. He's always one of the first to arrive and one of the last to leave. Leah is in charge of the salads but also pitches in wherever needed. Look at those gorgeous raspberries we served today! I must also mention that in the background is super volunteer Kevin in action. During the two hour service,  he's always on the move clearing dishes out of the dining room.