I Promise

 A friend sent me a picture of some wild mushrooms someone gave her. I am not a fan of mushrooms myself--don't like the texture or the taste and they make me itch when I eat them. But her picture reminded me of when I cooked in the soup kitchen. My day was Thursday, usually, although I'd fill in on a different day if needed. There were various people on my crew, including a pot washer, who I will call Jack (not his real name). When I started cooking there, Jack would ask me every week if there were mushrooms in the meal, because he did not like mushrooms. I would always reassure him that there were no mushrooms, so he could feel free to enjoy his lunch. After several weeks, I told him, 'Jack, I don't like mushrooms myself, so I promise you that when I am cooking, I will not be adding mushrooms to anything. I give you my word.' His face lit up and he said, 'OK!' and gave me a hug.

The soup kitchen coordinator always gave the 'chefs,' as we were called, advance notice of what we'd be cooking with on our day. One day I got an email from her asking if I would make beef stroganoff, because there was a lot of beef and a lot of sour cream. When that happened, stroganoff was the default. I wasn't keen on the stroganoff idea, since I don't like beef, either. And there was my promise to Jack. So I asked if it had to be stroganoff. The coordinator said that if I could think of a different way to use up the beef and the sour cream, I could make whatever I wanted. I thought a while and came up with a taco casserole. I emailed and asked if we had the various ingredients I was thinking about. We did and she said it sounded good and she was looking forward to trying it. It was a big hit, Jack was very happy, and I was asked to make it again and a again after that. The coordinator later told me that it was her favourite soup kitchen meal. I thought it was way better than stroganoff for many reasons, one of which was that I could get a lot more veggies in the meal! Taco casserole rotated with fish chowder, which I thought was pretty funny, because I didn't have a lot of experience with fish in my home kitchen. 

I had never made it before, so the first time I was asked to make chowder, I was nervous. But I did it my way, much to the chagrin of one of the people who worked at the food bank, who wanted it with just onion, celery, spuds, bacon, loads of butter, and cream along with the fish. That's not how I roll, so I asked the coordinator what veggies we had that needed to be used and she brought out a bunch of stuff. She was happy that these things were being used, but had not thought to bring them out before, since that wasn't usually how the chowder was done. I wasn't sure how the diners would feel about having all the veggies in the chowder--it was New England and as my co-worker illustrated, some people like things a certain way. But I figured that for many of the people coming for lunch, it would be the only decent meal they would have that day, so providing as much nutritious food as possible within that meal while making it taste good was a good thing. And there we had all that healthy food that needed to be used up. So in the veggies went. I nervously ladled the chowder into bowls and watched as the servers brought them to the diners. They seemed to like it. People wanted seconds and then even thirds. What a relief!

One Monday, when I was doing my usual shift at the food bank, I had to speak to someone in the office, so I walked down the hall to go there. People were sitting there waiting for the soup kitchen to open and I heard murmuring as I walked by. I heard someone say to her neighbour, 'She's the one who puts all the veggies in her chowder. It's so good!' That made me smile. 

I felt so bad one freezing cold winter day, when one of the guys who worked there came in near the end of the shift, rubbing his hands together. he'd been out doing deliveries or something and said he was hungry and looking forward to some chowder. His face fell when I said there was none left, so all I could offer him was some broth or I could make him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He took the broth. 

On my last day in the soup kitchen, before we moved to Ireland, I was asked if I wanted to make chowder or taco casserole. I chose chowder, simply because it was less labour intensive. The taco casserole was always a race to the finish and it took every minute to get it done before the doors opened.

I did a lot at that organization, as did a couple hundred other volunteers and the paid staff. There was a lot of community support, donations from local farms, restaurants, and grocery stores. People who needed it were able to get high quality, healthy food that would have otherwise been thrown away. But what a shame that such a place is needed and that without it, so many more people would go hungry and so much more food would be wasted. 

Share