It was pretty shambolic, but they enjoyed it which was the main thing. Me and OH and another lady cooked Christmas dinner for 40 homeless people at a shelter. The other lady did the turkey and chicken as we're both veggie so didn't really want to have to do it (can't cook anything I can't taste anyway). We got there at 10 to find the birds nearly cooked by the other lady, but nothing else started. We only had massive pans which I couldn't lift once they had water and veg in them and an electric cooker/hob, which I'm not used to. One of the residents set to peeling the spuds, and we put the spuds in cold water (not a good idea), by the time the water had started to boil I discovered that the bottom half of the pan of spuds had already got to mashing consistency! Luckily we also had frozen spuds to top them up. The centre had only bought enough sprouts for 1 each! The other lady was putting the carrots on to cook at 11am (for lunch at 1!!) - I didn't say anything, just took them off the hob again, we also had yuk frozen mixed veg, instant gravy and instant stuffing (which burnt as it was put on far too early!).
I was really upset when we dished the food up (OH nearly passed out when he found out he was going to have to carve the turkey as no-one else was around, bearing in mind he hasn't touched meat for the best part of 30 years, I was OK until he broke the leg off at which point I had to go outside for some fresh air
) as I thought the meal was pretty dodo and I was embarassed to be giving them 1 potato and 1 sprout (although they could come back for 2nds we just wanted to make sure everyone got some of everything), but everyone seemed really happy with it and came up to say thanks, and in fact we've been asked to cook one Saturday a month, so we must have got something right, it was really a long day though, standing up from 10am til basically 4pm after we'd cleared up, I was so glad OH had worked in a "mass production" kitchen before as I didn't have a clue what to do, and he took charge.
I think we will do it once a month, but on our terms, with our menu, which will be fresh, vegetarian nutritious food, some of the people there were very vulnerable and need healthy food, as well as lots of it! We have a lot of thinking to do before we commit though, as it would mean one Saturday afternoon a month, which is OK in the winter but not sure if I'd want to do it come the Spring when I can be on the lottie.
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December 23, 2008, 22:52