Sunday in the Kitchen with St. Paul's

Every Sunday, St. Paul’s Lutheran Church of Evanston opens its doors to the hungry; providing them with a hearty meal, good company and service with a smile.

Various community groups, businesses and houses of worship sign up for the Sunday(s) of their choice and then plan, shop, prepare, serve and clean-up after meal service.  The need is great and the experience is rewarding. 

The first time our group participated was a few years ago at the behest of our friend and co-worker Sue, who is a member of St. Paul’s.  Because August is generally a slow time for realtors and vacation time for many community members, that’s what we picked.  

Having never prepared a meal for a small army, we needed help translating a recipe from 10 servings to 100.  Once that was complete, we shopped and
chopped until we dropped.  On our appointed Sunday, we converged on the second floor kitchen to assemble our meal and serve it.

St. Paul’s has the system down pat and Dave and Martha guided us through set-up, service and clean-up. The guests come from all walks of life; seniors, young people, families and couples.  There are some familiar faces as well as new guests any given Sunday.

After soup kitchen training with my prior office, we decided to start a new service group at the two Evanston Coldwell Banker offices.  Rounding up volunteers and a tapping into a couple of prior food professionals, we were on our way.

Our recent April food service meant a hot meal, so Pasta Primavera, mixed greens, rolls/butter, fresh fruit and homemade Texas sheet cake filled the bill.  Four wonderful ladies prepared the majority of food the day before so all we had to do was heat the six massive casseroles, prepare the salad and set up the service line. 

Our servers had a great time taking care of our guests.  Whole families turned up to staff the service line and participate in this great program. It was so successful that we are already slated for a second service this August. 

If you would like to help out any Sunday, or start your own group and sign up for complete food service, contact St. Paul’s at: 847-475-3403.