By Melanie P. Moore
Meals for the Soul, a ministry of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Buffalo, Wyoming, created by retired professional chef Monica Smith, feeds around 40 people each month.
“I had worked in the culinary world for 20 years, the last five as a chef,” Smith said. “When I moved here in 2014, I said to my new husband, ‘I’m not working in the restaurant industry any longer, because working in a restaurant and having a relationship is not a good idea—I’m hanging up my knives.’”
Shortly after joining the church, Smith was approached about volunteering. “I said, ‘I’m going to make this really easy…I’m a retired chef, anything food-related I’m happy to do.’” Someone asked her, “How do you cook for one? We are all widows.” Smith had the idea to get the group together to batch cook in the church kitchen and share food costs. “They are sick of eating out in restaurants, tired of having frozen meals, tired of cooking something and looking at it for three or four meals in a row,” Smith said.
When she asked the priest about using the church kitchen, he thought it was a great idea and thought of others who could benefit—shut-ins, parishioners who just got out of the hospital, and widowers. “The snowball started,” Smith said. When she asked the vestry about starting the ministry, a brainstorming session resulted in a budget of $1,500 to start.
“At first we started with every other week doing a cook day,” she said. “I had volunteers who came in to do the cooking. I set up the menu for whatever items we’re going to do, usually two main meals and a soup—so people have an option if they don’t like pork or fish. A lot of the meals are gluten-free. Not exclusively, but some.”
Smith’s past range of experience as a chef has been a boon to the endeavor. Initially hired as the Chef Assistant at Green Chef, the only certified organic meal subscription company (now owned by Hello Fresh), she worked under five different chefs as the Kitchen Manager.
“That was a fun job,” she said. “I learned a lot about packaging then. I knew doing this (Meals for the Soul ministry) you can’t have people bringing their own containers and filling them up and sending them out.” She did a lot of research to find BPA-free, freezable, microwavable containers.
“We’re serving a lot of seniors who are singles and can’t cook or are sick of cooking for themselves. We serve people who have had surgery and find it difficult to stand and cook, for husbands taking care of their wives. We have homeless folks as well; St. Luke’s houses the Bread of Life food pantry. Sometimes they get food they can’t use, like a 20-pound turkey, or donations of 10-pound tubes of hamburger. And some unhoused people can’t cook because they have no kitchen so our prepared meals can help them.”
Using her knowledge, Smith develops a menu and a prep list. Volunteers look at it and understand how much to prep to be shared in the number of meals planned.
“We try to cook with the knowledge that they’ll be reheated,” Smith said. “Some things we cook three quarters [to done] so they won’t be completely dry when reheated. We serve sauces with our meals because moisture really helps in the reheating. When you reheat rice, it can turn into little rocks for example. Those are little factors that I know because I’ve done it for so many years.”
When the vestry provided the budget, a stipulation was that donations from participants would be expected and encouraged and that is what has happened.
“I’ve only had to dip into the budget 3 times,” Smith said. “That tells me this is a functioning, happening ministry. Sometimes I’ve gotten a random check for $300 just to support [Meals for the Soul]. I take that kind of donation and buy containers so we can take that cost out of the food cost.
The ministry recently won a grant from the Wyoming Hunger Initiative to buy a freezer and containers for a year.
November will mark the third year of the ministry which has developed a devoted following.
“We have a lot of people who request certain favorites–ham and scalloped potatoes is popular, and soups like chicken noodle, minestrone, and tomato basil. The bulk of our population is seniors. As you age you lose your sense of taste. We use sauces and bold flavors, not necessarily spicy heat but good strong flavors. I’m very concerned about making sure each dish gets one to two portions of vegetables. For salt, a couple of us will taste to see if something needs more salt. It’s always a stipulation that we put some in but you can add more. We assume people have basic condiments.
“I enjoy that there are certain regulars who come…there’s one fellow who every Friday is sitting out there before I get to work, and the pantry doesn’t open until noon. Sometimes, he and his buddy come in to warm up. I heat up a couple of meals for them. Most take food home, but I have some take-out cutlery I can send if people need it. Sometimes people sit down here and eat and we talk and I find out what else they may need. Sometimes even some of our clergy will have a tight schedule and just need a meal.
“It’s my love language; I want to feed people.”
The Health Department approved the kitchen for this use with the stipulation that all food/meals were labeled with ingredients, including allergens.
“We are permitted to share these meals within our church family,” Smith said. “We have a connection with two sister churches in town and people in those churches can get in touch with us. We can’t put our meals into the food pantry, but if someone is identified who needs meals, the food pantry manager will send them to me. It is not meant to be community-wide or advertised because we would be overrun. Meals on Wheels doesn’t run one day of the week, so this fills a gap. It’s not meant to be ‘I’m feeding you every day of the week.’ It’s meant to fill in gaps.”
Smith and her volunteers are cooking once a month now, on Wednesday afternoon. They can accept donations of fruits and vegetables.
“Every spring we have one parishioner who brings us rhubarb and we have this really savory sauce recipe that we make with the rhubarb and use it,” she said.
Smith, a Canadian by birth, just had her swearing-in ceremony this month to become a United States citizen.
“It’s been a ten-year process,” she said. “Everyone being processed in Montana and Wyoming is going to Gardiner, Montana [for the ceremony]. Then I have to jump back in the truck to come back to the Convention [of the Episcopal Church in Wyoming] in Casper, WY. My husband and I are delegates.”
If your church community is interested in starting a ministry like Meals For the Soul, Monica has graciously offered to field your questions and share tips learned throughout her journey. Please reach out to Monica here: saintlukeoffice307@gmail.com
See more Meals for the Soul Ministry volunteers in action on our Iona Collaborative Facebook page.
