Our Leland Place dinners are cooking along nicely - so to speak. After something of a lapse, we've revived our decadelong ministry to Leland, a halfway house for men recovering from addictions and homelessness. It is part of S.O.M.E (So Others Might Eat).
At our first dinner, on October 1, seven Leland residents ate heartily (as did the volunteers!). The menu: Midwestern meatloaf, Asian string beans, mashed potatoes a la Bill Baker (10 lbs. of them!), salad, iced tea, Italian bread and, for dessert, ice cream, pound cake and strawberries.
The second dinner, on October 15, was attended by six appreciative Leland men. We dined on Monterey chicken, served over egg noodles. That's a colorful chicken fricassee that includes onions, carrots, garlic, yellow and zucchini squash, red peppers, orange juice and crushed tomatoes. It went down nicely with salad, crusty Italian bread, iced tea and ice cream and strawberries. After both meals, plenty of leftovers were squirreled away in the Leland fridge for men absent to attend 12-step meetings or visit family.
Leland has been spruced up since early 2004, when we last visited the facility on North Capitol Street. It has a new stove and dishwasher - both industrial-quality - and new dining room chairs. The "day room" has been moved from the second floor to the first and the vacated second-floor space has been remodeled into new rooms.
Also, we made a start toward restoring the UNMC kitchen to comfortable cooking condition - but have a ways to go on that front.
Thanks for all the hard work and fellowship to last month's volunteers: Bill Baker, Marti Martinson, Jim Morgan, Emily Skidmore and Liz Crawford. (Little-known fact: Jim is speed demon at peeling potatoes and chopping onions. Just don't let your fingers stray near his work!)
If you'd like to volunteer for Saturday dinners scheduled on November 12 and December 17, please contact the office at 202-387-3411. At least three volunteers are needed each time; four or five is a comfortable number. When you RSVP, let me know if you are signing up to be a "helper" or the "plannershopper."
The planner-shopper does what the title implies - chooses the menu and shops for the ingredients - enough to feed about 18 to 20 Leland residents and volunteers. We divide up the cost of the meal by the number of volunteers and the helpers reimburse the planner-shopper for their shares - usually an amount between $12 and $25.
Posted by Mark McNabb at November 10, 2005 08:54 AM