We set up for the monthly homeless meal last Sunday; and we were doing well...we fed 105 people!
The weather was brutal with 27 °F temperatures, ice and wind.
We fed spaghetti, chili, macaroni and cheese, green beans casserole, sandwiches with Panera bread, and pizza. We loaded them up because it was Cold!
When we were shutting down, and a bunch of volunteers had already left; when we got 'the call'! The Tulsa Day Care Center for the Homeless was in trouble. Due to the extreme temperatures, they let everyone come in. Then they realized they were out of food! We fed 24 at the Denver House, who got the call from the Day Care Center; asking for help.
They gave them our numbers, and they were in a panic. We always make extra food, so we started making more foam plates.
We also began making more emergency food , using what we carry canned in our trailer. Adding chili beans to our chili almost doubled or available chili, doctored with some spice; leaving a respectable chili roaster load!
Two volunteers go for all the chips they can, and I start several gallons of cheese:
Here I've stripped an empty roaster, to begin making queso. We scrounged a quart of milk to thin the cheese where we can heat it properly. They came back with a dozen big bags of chips, and 3 cans of Rotel for heat!
The foam plates started filling:
We put chips in the large pocket, and covered one side with queso, and the other side was covered with chili. We added green beans casserole, and the remaining macaroni and cheese.
Using what we could make on the fly, along with the leftovers we stacked up about twice what I thought we could make:
With only half our volunteers still available, we went for it.
We had made multiple sandwiches from Panera bread:
These helped fill a lot more meals. This guy and myself started this feed 10 years ago.
This was the craziest homeless feed ever, and we made at least 60 more meals. We took everything we could box up, and it was just enough. GOD plans much better than we do!
At the end of the day, everyone was warm and fed! It was a good day feeding the homeless.