lunches for Urban Kids

For the last few summers, our church -- Trinity UMC in Homewood -- has provided lunches for an entire week of summer camp for Urban Kids in July.http://www.urban-ministry.com/Programs/UrbanKids.aspx (check it out!)
Different groups sign up for a day and we provide a nutritious and healthy lunch for 35-40 day campers and the staff.  Trinity's staff takes a day and we usually provide chicken fingers and biscuits and fruit and veggies.  Some of the Sunday School menus included things like all beef hot dogs and mac & cheese.  Now I know you are thinking to yourself, "that doesn't sound very healthy."  You have to remember that the object is to get these kids to eat the lunch and to slip in some nutrition.  Trinity's Young Professionals signed up for Wednesday and we made the lunches as our Tuesday night program.

Our dining room table has seen much use over the last 2 1/2 years and I am so thankful.  Our lunch consisted of a turkey and cheese (real cheese not cheese product) sandwich on white wheat bread.  We also provided pickles in a baggie and carrots in another baggie.  We sent baked chips and rice krispie treats for dessert.  We included little packages of mustard and mayo for the sandwiches and ranch salad dressing for dipping.  We also sent a baggie of grapes for each child.

The group works so well together.  They quickly clear off the table after dinner and dump out all of the supplies and get to work.  Let me just tell you that we had carrots out the wazoo!!!

We didn't have hair nets but we did have gloves!!!  This group never ceases to amaze me.  Mark and I cannot imagine our lives without all of them. 

We were able to store all of the perishables in our refrigerator over night and then Mark loaded up his gigantic cooler (the one that is large enough for a deer -- yes, it was clean - clorox does wonderful clean up!!). He and his work friend, Steve, delivered all of the lunches around mid morning.  We had planned to just leave them in the cooler in Mark's car but the temperature was already about 90 degrees at 8:30 so we called Urban Ministry and they allowed Mark and Steve to deliver around 10:30.  We also provided juice boxes - forgot those!!

Our dining room is used every week and that thrills my heart and soul!!  We put the thermostat on 65 each week because when all of those people are in our house, the temperature goes up dramatically.  The temperature in the dining room really rises when all of them are around the table working.  You can walk into the family room and then walk back into the dining room and it feels about 10 degrees warmer.  Body heat!!

Another successful mission project as a group!!  It is a good thing to be the hands and feet of Christ!!