The Seventh Meal

May 5, 2016

At first glance the fact that we recently added a 7^th meal to our Breaking Bread offerings may not seem all that significant, but adding another breakfast to the schedule beginning on April 19^th has turned out to be quite an undertaking. This is the first time we are serving two meals in one day, and the kitchen staff, led by Chef Steve Seibel, has been ramping up and installing new equipment – including our new tilt skillet – and more support personnel.

Our Volunteer Department, headed by Julia Wallis, has been in overdrive recruiting new volunteers, and contacting our cadre of faithful returning volunteers to fill these new slots. And the response has been gratifying. And of course expanding our meal service allows us to expand our Mail Service as well. Currently we have about 2,800 guests who use 315 S Broad as their mailing address. We expect that number to climb to close to 4,000 guests in the near future.

All of this has taken careful planning to make sure we have sufficient infrastructure in place, and careful messaging to our guests who are often unsettled by change. For them most of the time when they experience change, they actually feel short-changed instead. Because of our generous benefactors, and faithful volunteers and a committed staff, we expect this change to be a positive experience for them.