September was a whirlwind of a month. Summer is gone and Autumn has arrived. We had 5 Wednesdays to serve meals. We served a total of 771 meals. During those meal services we served 92 people who had never received a free meal in a meal distribution line in Auburn before. That is a lot of new people because they are coming back each week. Our numbers are jumping higher and higher and as I speak to other coordinators of free meal distribution, they are saying the same thing.
It is hard to provide more food than we already are right now. We have ovens and stoves on backorder and have no idea when they might arrive. We are cooking with 18 qt crockpot cookers and commercial size rice cookers. It works but the process is labor intensive. We come in the night before for meal preparation to slice and dice and sometimes cook parts, or even, the complete meal. On the morning of the meal, we put everything together, cook or reheat, package, and deliver in thermal bags to the meal distribution site.
What is to come? Starting next week, we will be preparing the food for SS Peter & John’s on Tuesdays. We will provide the food. They will cook or reheat, package, and distribute at their location. This will be a great partnership as it will give their volunteers a little bit of a break because they will not have to provide, prepare, and cook a whole meal. Starting next week look for us to be showing SS Peter & John’s Tuesday meal on our social media because we will be providing the food.
One of the most important things is that the organizations who provide free food to people in the city work together. We help each other when one is lacking in a specific resource. One organization cannot do this alone. Communicating needs helps us to help each other. More of this to come. Food security depends on it. That means lives depend on it.
