Ever wonder how our kitchen figures out what meals to cook using our donations?
Every Week is a New Puzzle to Solve!
We receive different quantities and types of food from grocery stores, farms, and other organizations from week to week. It can be a complicated puzzle to make sure we use what is donated in the best way we can while making healthy eating easy. But, no matter what we are given, the goal remains the same- to cook healthy and delicious meals that people want to eat.
Even though the kitchen only cooks twice a week, the effort to utilize all the food we receive and meet the needs of the people and organizations we serve is a weeklong process. Our recipients are always at the center of our decisions. We are honored to cook for them and create meals they enjoy eating with their families.
More Than Food Makes Our Meals
Here are some of the many factors we consider every week!
Ingredients
Volunteers
How many people are coming? What is their skill level? We love new volunteers and don’t want them to have a stressful experience, so we adjust the meals based on who and how many people will be making it. Some meals involve a lot of prep, so the more hands helping peel, chop, slice, the more complex meals we can create.
The People We're Feeding
Who we are cooking for is incredibly important. Are we cooking for younger kids or older adults? What time of year is it? In July, we made sure our recipients could reheat the meals we distributed without heating their whole house. Sometimes meals need to be freezable other times we need a meal that can work for more than one group. While we have favorite recipes, we frequently cook; creating variety in our meals also makes healthy and happy people!
