This Thanksgiving we volunteered to help prepare a traditional dinner for close to 200 members of the less fortunate in our community. We worked with Wade Volk who is with Showers of Blessings who provide a portable showers service for the homeless community. The Unitarian Society of Santa Barbara provided the venue and dozens of volunteers to set up and serve food.
Producing the dinner reminded me of my banquet chef days in a hotel. My pastry-chef wife Christine Dahl and I provided most of the sides and sauces for the meal. We prepared 75 lbs. yams, 16 pans of stuffing, 8 gallons of gravy, 12 pans of green beans with homemade mushroom soup. 150 gingerbread 'turkey" cookies, and 12 pans of apple cobbler.
It was a great group effort by all involved. My produce supplier The Berry Man donated all of the produce we needed and D'Angelo Breads donated bread for the stuffing. The Organic Soup Kitchen provided the mashed potatoes, Ethnic Bread in Goleta supplied slices of bread. See the link to a local news story from KEYT news.
Chefs Michael Hutchings and Christine Dahl
