Food for Thought
Our new Community Meal staff:
We’re pleased to announce that we’ve hired two new staff members to provide leadership to the Community Meal program.
Our new Community Meal Kitchen Director is Sherry Conklin. A member of the UPC congregation, Sherry is a familiar face here. She has volunteered many times at community meals, both here at UPC and elsewhere. She’ll be responsible for planning the meals, ordering food, and overall kitchen operations.
Our new Community Meal Volunteer & Outreach Coordinator is Dolores Wisdom. Dolores comes to us from The Discovery Center, where she was employed as their Volunteer and Events Coordinator. She has been a weekly volunteer at the Tuesday Meal for the past two years and is looking forward to supporting Sherry as we reboot the Meal. She’ll be focused on building our base of volunteers and engaging with our partner agencies in the community.
Good news from the Kitchen crew:
After a 4-month hiatus and some restructuring, the Tuesday Community Meal will begin serving again on February 4, 2020. It has been a long five months, for the community and for our volunteers. We are all eager to get cooking!
Historically, we have been feeding an average of 125–150 on a Tuesday evening. It takes the generosity and dedication of our teams of volunteers to make this happen. Speaking from experience, it is extremely rewarding and a lot of fun. There is something very special that happens when sharing food that is cooked with love and care. And what we feed on Tuesday extends beyond the dinner plate. Our guests find a sense of community and connection, along with the home-cooked meal.
Does this sound interesting? Would you like to get involved? We have room on our teams of volunteers!
Each team is responsible for preparing and serving the meal one week per month. There are 2 shifts:
- 12–4pm, the Food Prep shift, for those who like to slice and dice.
- 4–7pm, the Serving/Breakdown shift, a fast-paced, community-engaging shift. We serve the meal from 5pm to 6pm, and are generally finished with cleanup by 6:30.
If you don’t have time available for a full shift, would you like to drop in and lend a hand for an hour or two? You are always welcome. Join us!
To sign up, you can go to our website at upcbgm.org/volunteer; call the church at 607-722-4219, ext. 201; email Dolores at volunteer@upcbgm.org; or drop by the office, where you can leave your information with Tammie at the Welcome desk.
“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” —Virginia Woolf
