KITCHEN TEAM REPORT: Dr. Judy Fiske
The Kitchen Team coordinates the Fellowship Meals on Wednesday nights during the program season of the church year—September-May. The team also helps to coordinate receptions, meals for special events such as business meetings and the Fan Feast and the cleaning and care of the kitchen and eating areas of the Fellowship Hall. The members of this team serve faithfully each week to make sure that meals are served that both taste good and are affordable. Bonnie Bailey, Priscilla, Joey and Paul Kinchen, Gerry Spiller, Peggy Strong, Tara Neely, Connie Jones and Linda and Jack White have served as the mainstays of this committee for several years. Anita McCarty, Woody Jenkins, Meg Lacy and John Burgess served on Wednesday evenings as our “cashier.” Vincent Salley has been an important staff person to assist this team. Vincent is often helping to cook and plan menus as well as helping to make sure the space is clean and “critter” free. This ministry is both budgeted and supported by the payments for meals each Wednesday. It has been a great help to have the “Square” available each week to help them as they take payments. We work hard to stay within the budget. The budget for the team includes all of the paper goods used in the kitchen. This includes paper plates, cups, utensils and paper towels as well as coffee and tea. This year’s menus have been set out in a six-week rotation so we know what is for dinner a long time in advance. We are now cooking for over 100 people
each Wednesday evening and 150 when we have a business meeting. We use all of the really big pots!
The kitchen continues to see a large increase in use as our International congregations often have meals as a part their events. Tabernacle Child Care Center uses it each weekday to prepare the meals for their children and staff. TCCC continues to eat their lunches in our Fellowship Hall. Groups that stay in the building sometimes prepare their meals in the kitchen. Tabernacle has served as the host facility this year for events held by several other non-profit groups including Re-establish Richmond. We are often cooking in shifts, cleaning as we go so that the next group can prepare for their event. The equipment and space are well used.
The tile floor was replaced in August. This involved moving all of the appliances so the floor could be replaced. We found out exactly how heavy that great big stove is. It now sits on a specially covered section of the floor. The week of December 9th both the very old refrigerator and the very old coffee maker breathed their last. We arranged for TCCC to use one of the Food Pantry refrigerators for a couple of weeks while arrangements were made to purchase a new refrigerator. We suffered without coffee for several weeks. The new refrigerator arrived January 3rd and the new coffee maker was functional on January 11th.
We are blessed to have a great kitchen and serving space—you should come volunteer to serve on the kitchen team! We don’t have a lot of meetings, but are likely to be together cooking and cleaning. If you are not afraid of a BIG pot containing a lot of food then the kitchen is the place to be! The best conversation is always had in the kitchen—-just like at home!
Dr. Judy Fiske
Minister of Music/Worship/Organist
Decent Cook—Terrible Dishwasher
Chief Procurement Officer