One of Cooking for the Crowd's longest partners is the St. Patrick Refugee Outreach Program which was started in 2001 to address a significant increase in the settlement of refugees from the Sudan into the Dallas area. Many of the “Lost Boys of the Sudan” and other Sudanese families were the program’s first participants. Since that time, the Program has served refugees and immigrants from many countries, such as Burundi, Congo, Burma, Rwanda, Eritrea, Kenya, and Tanzania.
Since its inception, over 1,000 refugees have participated. The program offers about 200-250 refugees an opportunity to gather each Sunday for fellowship. Whether it is through English language classes, citizenship classes, playing soccer with teens, or volunteering in the kitchen, the Refugee Outreach program seeks to build a sense of belonging and community to all its members!
Each Sunday, Cooking for the Crowd lovingly prepares food-from-scratch to feed the program's participants. Prior to Cooking for the Crowd's involvement, ROP was spending upwards of 40% of their budget on food, siphoning valuable funds away from the core program. Here's the story of one Sunday - filling bellies while sharing a homecooked meal together.
First things first, a group huddle followed by rolling the cutlery and filling the water cups. Food that was made the day before by Cooking for the Crowd is heated to perfection in giant ovens and carefully plated by the team. This process goes fast when a youth group (during this particular meal) helps out. Different volunteer groups sign up in advance to prep the meals from week to week.
Meals are served and the gratitude for homecooked food is shared by the refugees and volunteers alike! The food is fresh and amazing and fills everyone with a sense of dignity and respect.
Meal service continues until bellies are full. Afterwards the team packages up extra food for participants to take home, the kitchen is wiped clean, dishes completed and trash taken out!
Cooking for the Crowd was founded with the simple premise: Love, respect and dignity are foundational to human potential and the fact that small non-profit organizations inefficiently spend much of their time and resources feeding the people they serve, regardless of their actual mission. This essay shares Cooking for the Crowd's mission: to take cooking off their plate so they can focus on their mission!
May it be so! Thanks for reading the first of a storytelling series where we highlight the missions of the amazing groups we serve.
Photos and story by Sarah Jane Semrad.
Amazing!!