How to Feed 120 Kids

A bunch of Temple Sinai volunteers got together last night and fed about 120 kids at the First Methodist Church in Oakland. The event was sponsored by First Place for Youth, which helps kids who have aged out of the foster home system. This is Temple Sinai's 6th year helping; it was my first. Oh -- and by "kids," I mean young adults, 18 or a little older.

Just an aside here: I was truly amazed at how many young women had kids with them. Babies. My gosh. What a challenge.

Dozens of people came by and dropped off food. Ten or so of us stayed to serve. Alex brought three turkeys fully cooked, and spent most of his prep time sawing off pieces with an electric knife. I found myself heating chicken broth for eventual gravy (I actually had to take a match to the industrial stove, which scared me to death), opening cans of cranberry sauce (thanks to Laurie who completed that task for me by cutting up the tubes of red goo), scattering the desserts on trays for later (with Dawn), and finally, serving the salad and desserts.

I was kind of amazed that it all came together. Thanks to maybe 4 people who knew what they were doing, saw the need and filled it. (I was not one of them. I am happy to do what organized people tell me to do, but this was on such a scale that I couldn't even comprehend the job.) Cecille told me to take the salad station, so I did.


Cecille suggested I coat each salad collection with the dressing so that kids weren't standing around squirting the bottles. So, I did that, and had ranch vs. Italian vinaigrette. As it turned out, there was no question: the kids wanted the ranch dressing. Dawn was to my right, serving up slices of her cranberry jelly. Some went, "eek, beets!" and fled the scene, but she was smart enough to tell them what it was before they could leap to conclusions.

While all this was going on, they had Christmas music, pumped up, going on in the background. Dawn wondered why they couldn't play Bing Crosby. It's an Oakland Christmas, I explained, as we listened to Mariah Carey, the Ronnettes, and many more Detroit-style holiday songs.

The kids were very gracious, seemed to have a good time. I know I did. They were so cute, kind of excited over what was being served. And when the desserts came out, it took them a little time to react, but they finally came over and started scooping them up. Laurie and Dawn would prepare plates for them, offering them some of the strawberry and whipped cream holiday cake as well as whatever else they wanted. There were so many cakes and cookies and brownies that, well, it would've sent any diabetic within 100 yards into a coma, just looking at it all.

Pretty cool way of giving to Oakland's kids, especially the ones who will struggle just to survive. I'm glad we could give them a good meal.

Getting Ready for Lunch

I have always wanted to volunteer in a soup kitchen. But along with that want were many fears, like how do I handle food, how do I deal with the men in the shelter, etc. I finally found a way to help that didn't involve much of that.

Temple Sinai has a program that supplies 120 lunches every Wednesday at the Henry Robinson Multi-Service Center in downtown Oakland. It only has 33 beds, so I wonder where those extra 90 come from. I'm assuming they come off the street, eat lunch, and go back to the street. They offer:

* 28-Day Emergency Shelter for Families
* Transitional Housing
* Food Services
* Day Drop-In Services

The program is well-run by Temple Sinai coordinators. Jennifer sent me several attachments, including a shopping list, directions on how to put the sandwiches and lunch bags together, and how to deliver them. They were very helpful today as I did the first part of this: shopping.

Here's the shopping list today -- and note that the shopping list assumes we'll be shopping at
Costco, and we did. Also note how specific the instructions are.

120 Paper Lunch Bags - Buy these in bulk. Use brown paper ones marked #6. (I already had plenty of these.)

120 Napkins

120 Plastic Sandwich Bags - Use Sandwich sized Ziploc bags (125 per box / 4 boxes per carton).

120 Pieces of Fruit - Usually Apples or oranges are the best buy and transport and pack well. Oranges can be used as is, but Apples should be washed and dried before placing them in the bags. Fruit prices and bag sizes vary throughout the year, so you need to compare to find the best deal. Take a calculator.

240 Pieces of Bread - Buy the Costco Kirkland brand Split Top Wheat Bread. It comes packed two loaves per bag and you need 5 Bags.

120 Small Bags of Chips - These come packed 30 bags to a box so you will need 4 Boxes.

120 Snacks - Look for Nature Valley brand Granola or Trail Mix Bars. These are usually a good buy and come packed 48 bars per box, so you need 3 Boxes.

15 Pounds of Roasted Turkey - Look for Butterball brand roasted Turkey Breast. These are double packs weighing 40 Ounces each. You need 6 double packs.

I bought double of most of the nonperishable goods here, as I'll be doing this next Tuesday as well.

Note in the photos that the whole kitchen has been taken up with bread, fruit, chips, fruit snacks. And in the fridge are the turkey slices and cheese.

Some of the residents had hinted that they wanted some variety. I found that hard to do, as the only two sliced meats, in bulk, that I could get at Costco were turkey and ham. And ham is out. And I didn't want to go anywhere else. So at least I will be adding cheese. And I tried to substitute other things, like plums for apples, a fruited snack for granola bars.

Assembly is tomorrow.