Just in case you’ve forgotten, or maybe never knew, BNP is the acronym for Brethren Nutrition Program. This program of church outreach functions from the soup kitchen located in the Washington City Church of the Brethren.
On Saturday, October 18th, we had an afternoon of group cooking in the Oakton kitchen preparing food for BNP. My personal input to our cooking day included pick up of donated produce from Garner’s Produce LLC of Warsaw, VA. They were very generous in their donation. At approximately 2PM cooks of many ages were assembled and functioning with high efficiency in the church kitchen and fellowship hall. The crew for the day included:
Emma Bachman
Jan Fischer-Bachman
Missy and Sary Burket
Cathy Carson
Mary Ellen Judd
Kay Lee
John Shafer
Anne, Audrey and Gillian Sullivan
and Al Zebrowski
Fellowship hall was converted to central chopping quarters, kitchen counter-tops to soup assembly plants and the stove to “cooking zone central”. After approximately 4 hours – a significant amount of that time was spent waiting for soups to cool – our cooking day was almost complete. Four different kinds of soups, as well as some chopped produce, were bagged and frozen. Carolyn Nestman, from BNP, picked up all prepared food on Monday, October 20th. She left with approximately 18 gallons of soup and as least 25 pounds of produce. Carolyn estimated that the food contribution from Oakton would supply the BNP for almost 3 months!
Karl Wilkerson coincidentally arrived shortly after Carolyn and assisted with the loading of her car. He agreed – a large quantity of frozen food is quite heavy! The Oakton all-church cooking day was sponsored by the Action-Reflection Committee. The day’s cooks and the committee have already loosely discussed plans for the next cooking day, some time during the 1st quarter of next year.
All in all, it was a great day; some fun, good conversation and significant education in squash preparation (thank you Anne Sullivan) were all part of our cooking day.
~Submitted by Cathy Carson