This past Tuesday three newly minted MESH team members joined Aileen Grossberg and Lynne Kurzweil to prepare a delicious comfort food meal for 50 MESH guests.
Immediately following PreSchool drop-off at 9 am, Jordy Stone, Rachel Dewitt and Julia Ruskin headed up to the Shomrei kitchen to join Aileen and Lynne who had planned, shopped and organized the game plan. Jordy and Julia worked on the Turkey Mini Meatloaves, chopping onions, and mixing spices, panko, eggs and condiments into the meat. They whipped up a tasty glaze that was spooned on midway while baking. Rachel prepared the semi-homemade Cole slaw and portioned it into 50 covered cups. When she finished the Cole Slaw Rachel joined Lynne who was chopping up potatoes and carrots, adding spices, garlic and olive oil, and readying the sheet pans for roasting in the oven.
Aileen worked on the chopped salad for our 4 Vegetarian guests (2 Vegan), all of whom had Beyond Burgers. The team packed up the green to-go bags with an orange, club roll, chocolate cupcake, cutlery pack, water bottle and an extra napkin because the meatloaves, baked in cupcake tins with the tasty glaze, could be a bit sticky. The food was stashed in the refrigerator until later in the afternoon when Susan Rosenblatt joined Lynne and Aileen to bake and glaze the meatloaves, heat up the vegetables, portion the hot meal in tins and add the Cole Slaw to the bags.
Lynne and Susan delivered the bags to 619 Bloomfield Ave where Joe greeted us and Aileen followed with some leftovers that MESH uses to supplement on other nights.
Many thanks to Jordy, Rachel and Julia! We had a lot of fun working together and getting to know one another.
Todah Raba to Risa Bernstein who has been helping us recruit new MESH volunteers. Her efforts are paying off and we are so appreciativeš
About MESH:
The Carol Starr MESH Cafe at Shomrei (Montclair Emergency Services for Hope) is a cooperative effort between the MESH organization and local synagogues and churches.
Volunteer at Shomrei
signup here
Shomrei provides 50 meals to MESH on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of each month. We need volunteers to help prepare and pack the food.
For those interested in volunteering who are not available on Tuesday afternoons, we are brainstorming different ways to make it work. Ā Let us know what would work for you.
Additionally, each Monday afternoon we deliver any usable food leftover from kiddish to MESH.
Volunteer at the MESH Site
Volunteers are also welcome to help serve food 6 nights a week, Monday through Saturday, 4:30-6:30 pm at the MESH site, 619 Bloomfield Ave, Montclair.
signup here
Monetary Donations
If you can’t help in-person, please consider a donation to help fund this important service.
donate here
Questions? Contact Lynne or Aileen:
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