Our church fellowship area is filled with good food smells and visiting voices every Sunday evening.  And we’ve been especially busy this summer at Second Helping.  Total number of meals served (counting second helpings and sack lunches) for June, July and August was 1,944, with an average of more than 150 meals per Sunday.  First helpings (the number of people) totaled 967, about 76 per evening. Last year the average was about 64 first helpings per meal.  We have been blessed with the generosity of cooks, crew, greeters, and dessert makers every Sunday this summer.  Fresh produce (i.e. 200 pounds of tomatoes, 2 crates of fresh corn and other items from the Breadbasket; ten-gallon buckets of cucumbers, green beans and apples from community members; eggplants, beans, and other produce from church members) have enhanced our healthy meals and have provided items for the Free Table for our guests to take home.  
Linda Thurston, 2H meal coordinator



A little something to help…

A couple of weeks ago, after the meal, one of our regulars came up to me to thank us for the meal.  They also said – I know these meals cost a lot and I would like to help.  A shaky hand reached out and gave me four crumbled $1 bills.  I offered thanks and said it was our honor to serve the meals….”see you next week; we’re having chicken!” 
Linda



Ready to pitch in - again?

In the past several years every member of our church has helped with our Sunday community meals in some way – cash and food donations, preparing and serving the meals, making sack lunches and desserts, picking up groceries, coordinating lunches and volunteers.  There are many ways you can continue to pitch in.  First, we always need volunteers – talk to Les or go to the sign-up page on the church website.  We also need donations of cash and food.  Despite the blessings of Flint Hills Food Recovery, the Breadbasket, and USDA Food Bank and Soup Kitchen commodities, we still need dollars.  Our biggest expenses are the sack lunches (we don’t get sandwich bread and lunch meat from any of our sources) and the recyclable/compostable items we use for serving Dine-In meals and To Go meals.  Costs for these items usually runs more than $500 a month – significantly more that several years ago.  Thank you for your prayers, your time and your cash.





If you’re headed to Sam’s or Cosco….

Sam’s and Cosco have the large size cans and containers we love at 2nd helping.  (How long do you think it takes to open 36 #300 cans of green beans?)  Next time you head to one of the big stores, consider bringing home one or two of these items for Second Helping:
Ranch dressing
Baked beans
Instant oatmeal
Breakfast bars
Snack crackers
Mushroom soup



Where does 2nd Helping food come from?

We are blessed with regular donations and deliveries that provide much of the goods that go into our weekly Sunday suppers for 2nd Helping.  Have you wondered where the items come from that the cooks and crew prepare every week?  Here’s a list:

1. USDA commodities from the Kansas Food Bank and Soup Kitchen program based in DFC.  We send in a monthly inventory and order, although we don’t always need to order – the items they offer vary from chicken drummies to dried cranberries.  Most of the meat and canned veggies we serve comes from commodities.  
2. Flint Hills Food Recovery is part of the Farm and Food Council in Riley County.  They manage the pick-up and delivery of catered food such as the prepared food we get from the K-State training table caterers (Sudexo). They also recover items like 20# boxes of bacon (we took 3!), cases of frozen bread dough, and fresh produce.  We signed up for this program and I get alerts or a phone call from Vickie James, the coordinator, when food is available and will be delivered. We love recovered catered food – our 2H cooks just need to heat it up!
3. Panera Bread is delivered almost every Friday by Larry from First Lutheran.  We usually get loaves and baguettes, but sometimes we get fancy muffins.  Extra goes in the freezer or is packaged and put on the Free Table for our Sunday supper guests.
4. Hy-Vee gives us a discount for our weekly orders, which are usually fresh items such as salad materials and items for the sack lunches.  The order goes in on Monday and Jackie picks up our order every Wednesday.
5. Pastor Sue orders bulk items when we need them – such as the butter and jelly packets for meals, breakfast bars and, of course, the service items we need.
6. The MHK Community Chest, organized by the Manhattan Community Foundation and staffed by volunteers, sometimes has food items we can use with our meals or can put on the Free Table.  They also have personal items such as toothpaste.  You never know what is available, and Stephanie checks for us weekly to see if there are items we can use.
7. Flint Hills Breadbasket sometimes has fresh items that they need to move before the items spoil. A call to Ryan will let us know if there’s anything available and I’ll go pick up what is available if we can use it.  I usually check with Ryan the end of the week so we’ll have something for Sunday.  This summer:  200# tomatoes; 2 bushels of corn (husked by my neighbor, Thom); a case of summer squash; and zucchini, kale, lettuce, bananas, and more.
8. Church members, neighbors, and community members provide cookies, desserts, garden produce and more!  If we can’t use items like a 10-gallon bucket of apples right away, we put them on the Free Table for our guests.  A friend brought 60 zip-lock bags of washed green beans for us to put on the Free Table.  Church members bring oatmeal packets and breakfast bars as well as garden produce.  ESA collects items for us at some of their state-wide meetings.  

There are other sources of items that are essential is helping us provide a weekly hot meal and sack lunch for those in need of food and community.   We are blessed with this abundance.