yesterday was finally the day we've been planning & working on for almost a month. sole loved partnering with loaves & fishes to serve houston's homeless dinner. for the past 40 years, the soup kitchen has provided both spiritual and material sustenance to its clients. loaves and fishes exists to give hope, to light a candle in the darkness of the streets of houston. they provide a hot meal and a warm welcome to those in danger of losing their sense of human dignity. loaves and fishes serves lunch to street people six days a week, tuesday through sunday and celebrates catholic mass on sunday. over two million meals served since its inception in 1976. last year they served more than 88,000 meals-that's 250-300 meals per day, six days a week (tuesday-sunday). it has been their mission, and their pleasure, for many years, as a member of the magnificat houses ministry. they are primarily funded by donations and greatly aided by volunteers-who are always needed! and they are a grateful member of the houston food bank, with additional support from area farmers and food donors. mommy & ms. stacy have been going down there to help serve meals here & there, but this is the 1st time they were in charge of everything! we recruited some amazing friends that have served with us before to come help us with this 1st undertaking! it goes to show we continue to have an amazing support team around us because they were there with bells on! unfortunately i got sick overnight & couldn't go. i was beyond upset, but i knew i couldn't afford to get sicker or get anyone else sick. so mommy, daddy & livi took off downtown with the rest of the crew while i cheered them on from home with tia. so dinner wasn't served until 5:30, but they had to be there at 3:00 to set up & for meal prep! it takes more than you can imagine to prepare to feed up to 200+ people. from setting up the outside patio with shoes & blankets, to the inside rolling utensils in napkins to the kitchen which is whole other story. daddy & mr. scott were in charge of cooking dinner which was chili cheese dogs with corn and green beans with chips on the side & our cookies for dessert. Do you have any idea how long it takes to get enough water boiling to cook over 200 hotdogs or how heavy it is to have to pick that container up to drain the hot dogs. if anyone ever doubted how strong daddy is, they don't now!!!
about 5:15 it was time for everyone to get their jobs & man their stations!
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| greeters & counter |
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| cooks & servers. mommy was a server too, but she took this picture |
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| window workers |
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| mustard & ketchup girls |
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| chips & cookies with a smile |
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| dishwashers |
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| in charge of people getting shoes |
at 5:30 the doors opened & it was time for dinner. one thing i didn't mention is that chili cheese dog are an all time favorite so let me tell you we had a lot of happy people coming through the doors once they smelt what we were serving.
livi took a break from greeting to help pass out our made with lots of love cookies & they were such a huge hit! one lady had to stop & take her picture with the incredible baker, it was super sweet.
this is joey & his dog chloe, he's super awesome & we always make sure to find him so we can give him a hug.
after they received their tray of food & were settled, they could go stroll around the patio for new shoes, socks & blankets.
then after dinner it was time to clean up, pack up & say our goodbyes until next time. sunday dinners are still a new thing at loaves and fishes so we only served 131 meals, but we know that number is going to grow. everyone had such an amazing time that we already booked to do dinner again on sunday, feb. 25th. mommy & ms. stacy are thinking we might take the last sunday of every month to serve dinner & i can't wait to join them. this is where are hearts are & what we love doing. i'm so happy that our closet friends & their families love it too so we can serve together!
