The Kitchen Ministry Project

Saint Andrew’s kitchen has always been the place for meaningful conversation, time of joy, and of sadness. We feed anyone who comes to our doors that need a meal, a sense of community, or help. We have shared hot meals for 35 years on Friday nights with no strings attached. Our volunteers are kind; guests become friends. The kitchen is the heart of our church, as the sanctuary is the soul.

Over the decades, when something broke, we fixed it. But this kitchen was never designed to produce the number of meals we serve now. Currently, we serve 4,000 nutritious home-cooked meals each year. And with the economic and health setbacks since COVID, the community needs us more than ever.

Our kitchen must be brought up to meet health code standards for the nutrition and volume of food we serve to the general public. We’d love your help.

HOW DID OUR MISSION BEGIN?

A lifetime ago, a teenager at St. Andrew’s started the soup kitchen with a lot of help from another member of the EYC (youth group) Cindi Freeland; Fr. Mike Griffiths, the associate rector at the time; and lots of parishioners who caught the vision and encouraged their enthusiasm. It all started in 1987 with a Carl’s Jr. hamburger that a couple teenagers bought across the street for a hungry man sleeping in the education building stairway after one of their youth group meetings. They were learning about world hunger, and the presence of a hungry person literally on their doorstep inspired them to act locally.

Initially, meals were served in the courtyard between the parish hall and the Fireside Room on picnic tables. The first meal they served was spaghetti and meat sauce. It ramped up fairly quickly to a once a week meal served inside, every Friday. They wanted their guests to feel dignified, so they served them as they sat at the table. They used real dishes and cutlery – not disposable. There were eventually five teams, named after the colors of copy paper available in the church office to differentiate the groups: Blue, Green, Yellow, Pink, Orange. This experience became foundational to the young teenager and his sense of call to the priesthood. He later became The Rev. Brian Coleman.

Thirty- five years later we continue to feed hot nutritious dinners to a steady stream of hungry people. We’ve had many dedicated directors and volunteer coordinators of this mission: Fr. Brian Coleman; Vern Shelters; Priscilla Hutton, Debbie Mahar, Margie Bangs, Ron Michaelo-wicz, Sandy Robbins, John Mignot; Bill O’Connell and Elizabeth Desloge; and currently Samantha Wylie and Paul Green. The number of hours, hard work and selfless giving make them heroes in our community.

“It was amazing that no one told me I couldn’t try, or that it wouldn’t work, or that it was too difficult. Maybe they did and I just wasn’t listening. The experience has been a foundational to my sense of call to the priesthood.”

The Rev. Brian Coleman