We interviewed our kitchen staff members about the rewarding job they do everyday.
You are serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner to so many in need at Good Samaritan Ministries. What is your daily routine from morning to evening as far as prepping the food, cooking, and cleaning?
Preparation begins at 6:00 AM sharp and ends at 9:00 PM. The kitchen staff is divided into different categories based on their talents such as scheduling, preparation, cooking, and food inventory. Menus for the daily breakfast, lunch, dinner, and evening snack are carefully put together based on what you have in stock and to include a portion of healthy nourishment for each meal. Any given day the kitchen staff can feed up to 200 meals. This requires them to determine how many will participants will be at each meal vs. what you have to work with in the kitchen. After each meal there is dish washing and sanitation tasks for each member of the team.
Your daily service is providing nourishment to all that participate in Good Samaritan Ministries. What a blessing! What are the most rewarding aspects of your job on a daily basis?
We see people come into discipleship who are undernourished or in an unhealthy state. It is rewarding on a daily basis to see them physically improve and get healthy with proper nourishment. Eating is always a happy time of day for the participants and we want to prepare good tasting and healthy food. Good food brings a better attitude. Serving the participants food at each meal gives the kitchen staff the reward of positive influence by encouragement, making jokes, and simply having a smile on their face. The disciples are tired from a long day of work and need that encouragement. It is rewarding see the them maintain a healthy diet with quality food. Many diabetics are controlling their sugar levels for the first time. Some are over/under weight and are receiving a good choice of healthy foods consistently. Healthy eating hopefully will continue after the participant graduates.
Preparing and serving food can be so rewarding and received well by someone who is hungry. What are some moments, reactions, comments that have had an impact on you by the Good Samaritan participants?
They feel loved by a staff that feeds them on a regular basis. We know we are serving the Lord when we serve them. We receive many compliments on the cooking and it encourages us to do better each time we cook. Comments like, “Man, that was a good meal, I haven’t had a meal like that in a long time”, or “That last meal of the day really helped me concentrate in Chapel and get good sleep for the next day”. Many go to the doctor and have better results because of the consistent nourishment.
Good Samaritan Ministries is so blessed to have food donations from so many businesses who want to help. Are there any special moments you remember when the food truck was unloaded and you saw so many varieties of nourishment being provided?
We can receive up to two donation trucks a day. It is so amazing how when you need something for a future schedule of meals and daily preparation, it appears on the truck on the right day at the right time. Sometimes the quantity of food is such a blessing so that we can prepare our meals with that extra special touch. Every three months we have a donator come and provide us an entire truckload of dry goods to include canned vegetables and fruit, rice, noodles, crackers and so much more. During the NASCAR race in the Spring as well as the holidays, the donations are amazing. God always provides exactly what we need at the right time. For example: during the Fall season we received 200 frozen turkeys on one truck. Donations like this allow us to feed the community around us as well as our residents, staff, and disciples with Good Samaritan Ministries.
