How Do CE Lunches Happen?

The Community Eats dinner at the Food is Fundamental Conference was a success, and we hope that everyone, from the lovely volunteers to those who joined us for dinner, had a wonderful time!

Now we are very excited to be planning the next lunch, a very special Thanks-giving edition on Friday, Oct. 10th, at Sprouts, from 11:30am- 1:30pm! But before that I feel ever so inclined to write about the whole experience to brining a CE lunch together. So here we go:

The first step is getting around to local grocers to pick up some fresh and beautiful produce donations they have kindly set aside for us and purchasing any extra stuff we may need (grain, oil, spices, etc). We get a variety of different fruits and veggies each time, which makes these trips lots of fun, interesting, and adventurous! [Boxes full of bags of assorted veggies: peppers, zucchinis, eggplants, and more!]
We then gather all the goodies to the AMS catering kitchen in the SUB for storage. Then we are reading to prep.

The prepping tasks are simple: we wash the produce, chop, chop, chop, chop, and basically get the fruits add veggies nice and ready for cooking. There is music in the background at the kitchen, and the volunteers are just there having a good time, chopping the hours away! The cooking involves stir frying, baking, etc depending on the menu. There is always a great variety of veggies, fruits, grains, and legumes.
[Our Kitchen Coordinator Adrick working hard]
We discuss the day's menu for a healthy, balanced, and nutritious meal. But we are always open to suggestions and fresh ideas. If you have this fantastic recipe you are eager to share, drop by and let us know! Or if you are a beginner and want to learn more about food, this is a great way to get some tips! Then comes the Set-Up shift. We set up the serving space, warm up the food, make ingredient signs, set up donation jar, e-mail list, and put out the fliers. The serving crew is the one who puts the yummy food in your re-usable containers! Now enjoy the delicious dinner put on by Community Eats!Once again, Community Eats is its volunteers. Special Thanks go to all the dedicated and committed volunteers who helped us make yet another successful meal! Feel free to let us know if you have any comments, concerns, suggestions, questions, ANYTHING. If you are interested in volunteering, you can find more information here