Dear all,
On Sunday, members of RYG met at Govans Presbyterian Church for youth group. Inside were tables covered in takeout containers waiting to be filled and a kitchen full of activity, bodies moving in different directions at different speeds. We joined students from Loyola University and chopped, stirred, sliced, washed, peeled, scooped, and de-stemmed our way to a beautiful, nutritious, and delicious meal. We were at Soul Kitchen.
Every week of the year, on Sunday afternoons, volunteers gather at Soul Kitchen to prepare meals for anyone who drops by to pick them up. Under the direction of Carolyn, the head chef and organizer, meals are lovingly made with fruits and vegetables donated by urban farms. This past week there was baked chicken; a stew of sundried tomatoes, zucchini, and rainbow chard; flame roasted shishito peppers; chowder with potatoes and corn; arugula, tomato, and feta salad; macaroni and cheese; Greek yogurt with cherries; in addition to a variety of desserts from which guests chose. There are no requirements or paperwork when you pick up your meal – just friendly conversation and company. Any extra meals are sent home with volunteers.
Soul Kitchen feeds people’s bodies, but it feeds our souls, too. It’s motto is “Community – Respect – Love” – and when I have been there I’ve seen those things offered to both guests and volunteers (who are sometimes the same people), and present in the food itself. Some of the ingredients have been grown by members of our Baltimore community; the meal is prepared by members of that community with love and care. The food matters: it is feeding God’s children. Carolyn – and by her example the rest of the volunteers – treats the meal that is created with respect. The people it feeds matter. And the people who are preparing it matter. And so what we create together, and the process through which it is created, matters.
Whenever we encounter the great importance of another person – the way that they matter, the way they are beloved of God, whether they are friend or stranger or foe – and make that real in the world, our souls are fed.
Plus, cooking together is a lot of fun! And that feeds our souls, too.
Below are some photographs from our time at Soul Kitchen. May your soul be fed today and in the time to come.
Love,
Rebecca+
