L.I.N.K.

LINK Volunteers

I. LINK

LINK is the Lawrence Interdenominational Nutrition Kitchen. It serves a hot meal to the hungry of Lawrence four times a week - Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. (The Salvation Army provides a hot meal on the other days.) LINK has a budget of its own, but the bulk of the food and service is provided by volunteers from local churches and other community groups.

II. Location and Parking

The LINK kitchen is located in the basement of the First Christian Church. The entrance is on 10th Street between Vermont and Kentucky.
Volunteers can park in the church parking lot or on the east side of Kentucky. There is a loading zone in front of the LINK entrance for dropping off food.

III. What we Serve

The meal consists of a main dish, vegetables (we buy large cans of vegetables), bread and butter, salad, fresh fruit, dessert and milk. Coffee and tea are also available at the facility. We generally have two or three vegetarian main dishes, including one vegan, but most of our main dishes are meat, and casseroles should have plenty of meat. Many of our members provide meat loaf, which is very popular, and lately we have a couple of members bringing pot roast, which is also very

There are a lot of chicken or ground beef casseroles as well. Each main dish should serve at least 12-14 people with generous servings.

IV. Procedures for Serving the Meal

The LINK kitchen has four stoves, and we can keep food hot or even cook it if it gets there early enough. The facility opens around 11:00 a.m., and the Fellowship's LINK coordinator is generally there by 11:30 to ensure that we have enough of everything. (A Fellowship member generally buys bread, milk, fruit and vegetables a couple of days in advance of our serving day.) LINK also has a couple of employees who are there when the facility opens. Food should be at the LINK facility by 12:30 p.m., and servers and clean-up volunteers should also be there by 12:30.

It would be helpful if you put your name on any dishes that you need to have returned to you. The LINK coordinator will collect dishes that belong to Fellowship members and bring them to the Fellowship the following Sunday morning. It would also be helpful if you would label the casseroles so that we know what is in it. We sometimes have trouble telling if we have a vegetarian or a meat dish.The meal is served from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. We have a couple of people serving hot food, (which is kept hot with a warming table) and generally have one or two people at each of the other stations - salad, bread, fruit, dessert, and milk. Servers all wear plastic gloves, and put the food on the clients' trays. We generally put just two main dishes out at a time, and one volunteer serves as "runner," removing empty casserole dishes and bringing new ones out from the kitchen. We may also have a runner ensuring that we have plenty of the other menu items out and available. Vegetarian dishes are kept in the kitchen, and people who ask for a vegetarian meal are directed to the kitchen.In the kitchen, we have one person who takes trays from clients who have finished their meals, scrapes the trays, and gets them to the people washing the dishes. There is a dishwasher that runs through its cycle in about three minutes, and our volunteers rinse the trays and other items, stack them in the dishwasher racks, and run them through the cycle.

We also have people drying dishes and putting them away. This procedure must start during the meal or the task would get away from us. It also continues after we finish serving the meal. We may also need someone to prepare additional food, such as salad (which we generally buy in the large pre-washed bags).

V. Cleanup

We continue with the dishwashing that has started during the meal, and also wash off the serving tables, including the warming table. We sometimes wash off tables where the clients have eaten, though there is usually plenty of help for that from the clients themselves. We dry dishes, separate the Fellowship members' dishes from LINK's, and put things away. We also generally begin wrapping silverware for the next day's meal.

VI. Clientele

We have seen the numbers of people coming to LINK for a meal grow substantially in the last year or two. The clientele is quite varied, consisting of families with children, the working poor, unemployed persons, persons with physical or mental disabilities, persons with mental illness, and the homeless, among others. Anyone who is hungry can come to LINK, and no questions are asked.

VII. Children as LINK Volunteers

We often have Fellowship members bring their children to help out at LINK, and we get some questions about how old they should be, etc. It is difficult to state a precise age, but the child should be able to stay on task for 45 minutes to an hour, and should be able to handle unusual things without going to pieces. While it is rare, there are occasional problems among the clients at LINK, such as arguments or even fights. These generally occur out in the dining room and not in the kitchen or serving area. Sometimes those of us in the back are not even aware of it. As long as the child is old enough to handle the task and the possibility of unusual events such as this, there can be tremendous benefits to introducing children to the needs that members of our community have and to the joys of helping.

RECIPES

Chicken Noodle Casserole (I got this out of the newspaper, and it's designed for serving at places like LINK. It serves 20 -- I have to cook it in my turkey roaster.)2 10.5 oz. cans condensed cream of chicken soup, plus two cans water
2 10.5 oz. cans condensed cheddar cheese soup, plus two cans water
4 cups sour cream
2 cups milk or chicken broth (I've been using chicken broth)
3 tbs Dijon mustard
2 tsp lemon pepper
6 cups cooked chicken breasts, shredded or cut in small pieces (I tend to be generous with this -- more is better!)
6 cups cooked chopped broccoli (I use frozen)
3 12-oz. packages egg noodles, cooked and drained
12 oz. shredded sharp cheddar or other cheese.Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Combine all ingredients in a large roasting pan (as I said, I use my turkey roaster and this recipe fills it).

Cover casserole with aluminum foil and seal edges tighly around the pan. Bake 90 minutes. Company Casserole (This is a recipe we sometimes used at home when I was growing up. The following version is doubled from the original.)

2 8-oz. packages egg noodles butter or oil for browning meat (I use canola oil)
3 lbs. ground beef salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp. garlic powder (or to taste)
2 8-oz. cans tomato sauce
2 cups cottage cheese
2 cups sour cream
12 green onions, chopped
1-1/2 cups grated American or other cheese (I use colby jack)

Cook noodles in boiling salted water according to package directions.
Brown the ground beef in the melted butter or oil (you'll need a pretty big pan or pot). Add salt, pepper, garlic powder and tomato sauce and simmer gently for 5 minutes. Combine cottage cheese, sour cream, onion, and noddles in a large bowl. Alternate layers of the noodle mixture and the meat mixture in a 13-1/2 x 9-5/8 x 2-3/4 pan (available in disposable form from the grocery stores). (I generally start with a layer of noodles, and finish with three layers of noodles and two of meat.

Noodles should be the bottom and the top layers.) Top with grated cheese. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes, or until thoroughly hot and slightly browned on top.