"aem" wrote:
> [snip]
>> We signed up to bring food on this Sunday (and plan to for the first
>> Sunday
>> inst intended to be a full meal, just one of 3-4 items they'd get.

>If it's church related, how can you not serve lentils? They're fast,
>nutritious, can be delicious, and appear numerous times in the bible.
>Make them even better by starting with a little bacon and finishing
>with cheese toast....

Lentils eh? Oddly thats an item I have made only rarely. The cheese toast
would be hard for me to manage and have it still be warm.

To flesh this out, they have an average of 100 customers on these Sunday
events at this season (hence the dish size should fit 20 or more). It's
very much a small local thing and in summer drifts down to about 50-60
folks. It's held about 2 hours after church services. At then end, if
there is food left over, (tends to be none in winter I am told), those with
a need can take all they want home with them.

In winter, there may not be enough to go around but they have standby stuff
so all will have 'something' even if it's just pasta and spagetti sauce. No
one leaves hungry.

They do not accept or desire to have fancy funding. It's a sort of 'family
thing'. Some 30 folks contribute and while you can bring anything (food
safety note earlier posted), they also have a list of what expected already
on a board so folks can try to offset.

They made me laugh when they said how that started. Apparently a local
grocery had a killer sale on chicken and one Sunday, they had 15 pots of
chicken soup and 5 baked chickens, plus 4 'other things'. Now, they have a
blackboard and you can just call and ask 'what's cookin' then offset a bit.

Some of the more flush members bring a consistant set of meat dishes.
Several less flush ones bring green bean salads and canned veggies. 1 gifts
20$ a month for the use at the day old bread store (can get a full loaf for
about 50cents and lots of other things there than plain white).

If I had the *$* I would do more, but they have made me feel very
comfortable to contribute what I can afford and made it easy for me to see
what might be a good mix with what's already known.

Grin, getting long winded but: 20 servings each, 100 people, can handle 5
people bringing crockpots of beans. 5 people with stews. 5 people with
vegetables. 5 people with desserts. Each providing 20 servings x5=100. The
stray 10 other of the 20, provide various other things.

Not all play every Sunday. Being a newcomer, I am not part of the regulars
yet. I just fit myself in where it seems there isnt too much of one thing
and this is only my 3rd time doing it. First time: veggie soup/stew with
chicken and diced tomatoes. Second was: baked apples (cored with a little
brown sugar and butter, halved to make 18 servings), and the bean pot
tomorrow.