Swedish Meatballs, Mashed Potatoes
Every Thursday evening (with a few exceptions, such as Thanksgiving Day and during Neewollah week) at the Episcopal Church here in Independence, we have a 'community feeding' dinner, a free supper for anyone in the community who shows up. It is always 6 to 7 PM (cooks and other staff workers on duty 5 to 8 PM). What we serve depends on the cooks for the week (that is not my department) but typically, we are heavy on starch foods, a lot of pasta-like things and sometimes chilli. Normally, about 60 to 70 people show up, but tonight we were absolutely 'mobbed', with about 85 counted at the door. About once every month or two we have a really good dinner (tonight, Swedish meatballs, mashed potatoes, beans, salad, dinner roll, cake for desert, and beverage). I think the dinner details depend on what the budget allows; we always have something although as I stated above, sometimes more pasta-like dishes.
We get a lot of guests from Garden Walk apartments, the 'housing authority' (projects) here in Independence. My job is 'greeter' and person-counter so that for statistics, knowing how much food is needed, I provide those figures from when we open the door at 5:45 PM until we close it down about 6:45 - 7:00 PM. Many of the same people come every week (about half or maybe 70 percent) but we always get at least one or two new folks, usually from the housing projects and that is the way it was tonight as well. I am also in charge of opening the door at 5:45 and keeping some semblance of a line on the sidewalk in front before, and in the dining area as the food is being served.
Two sad occurrences tonight: One young guy -- around 18 or 19 moved into town a month ago from Neodesha, Kansas (pronounced Nee-owe-duh-shay) were he had been living; he stays at Garden Walk apartments with his girl friend. He said they got totally ripped off at their apartment two nights ago; whoever did it got their money and quite a few of their possessions. I saw to it he and his girl friend both got extra plates of food at dinner, and sent them both back home with some 'carryout' food (the leftovers). The other sad thing tonight was a young kid about 8 or 9 years old who is deaf (but can hear a little with a hearing aid) lost the damn hearing aid in our garden (the church has a courtyard on one side of the main church) as he was coming in. I took a flashlight and went out with him and his mother and we looked through some piles of leaves where he thought it had fallen while he was playing here with a couple other boys right after dinner. We never did find it, but someone from the church staff will go out tomorrow in daylight and look for it again. This is obviously going to be a major financial problem for the family; hearing aids are not cheap; the family is not rich. The kid was sort of stressed out by the loss; he was trying to act brave, but you could see some tears forming in his eyes as he told me about the loss; when his mother came to speak to me a few minutes later it was obvious to me that they would be hassled with the matter of getting it replaced if the lost one was not found somewhere, somehow.
I am really glad we have these community free dinners every week; it is a great opportunity to meet some new and interesting people, especially since Independence has become a sort of financially depressed community in recent years, and people do appreciate our work.
We get a lot of guests from Garden Walk apartments, the 'housing authority' (projects) here in Independence. My job is 'greeter' and person-counter so that for statistics, knowing how much food is needed, I provide those figures from when we open the door at 5:45 PM until we close it down about 6:45 - 7:00 PM. Many of the same people come every week (about half or maybe 70 percent) but we always get at least one or two new folks, usually from the housing projects and that is the way it was tonight as well. I am also in charge of opening the door at 5:45 and keeping some semblance of a line on the sidewalk in front before, and in the dining area as the food is being served.
Two sad occurrences tonight: One young guy -- around 18 or 19 moved into town a month ago from Neodesha, Kansas (pronounced Nee-owe-duh-shay) were he had been living; he stays at Garden Walk apartments with his girl friend. He said they got totally ripped off at their apartment two nights ago; whoever did it got their money and quite a few of their possessions. I saw to it he and his girl friend both got extra plates of food at dinner, and sent them both back home with some 'carryout' food (the leftovers). The other sad thing tonight was a young kid about 8 or 9 years old who is deaf (but can hear a little with a hearing aid) lost the damn hearing aid in our garden (the church has a courtyard on one side of the main church) as he was coming in. I took a flashlight and went out with him and his mother and we looked through some piles of leaves where he thought it had fallen while he was playing here with a couple other boys right after dinner. We never did find it, but someone from the church staff will go out tomorrow in daylight and look for it again. This is obviously going to be a major financial problem for the family; hearing aids are not cheap; the family is not rich. The kid was sort of stressed out by the loss; he was trying to act brave, but you could see some tears forming in his eyes as he told me about the loss; when his mother came to speak to me a few minutes later it was obvious to me that they would be hassled with the matter of getting it replaced if the lost one was not found somewhere, somehow.
I am really glad we have these community free dinners every week; it is a great opportunity to meet some new and interesting people, especially since Independence has become a sort of financially depressed community in recent years, and people do appreciate our work.
posted by Patrick Townson at 8:32 PM
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