Meals with Meaning - St. Gregory's Episcopal Church

The calm before the storm.
55 pans ready to be heated.

The dynamic trio getting it done yesterday for Turkey Tuesday - 12 hours start to finish.
Thank you Magdy Tadros and Anna Thomas!

Provided food for 100 Thanksgiving meals for The Lucky Horse Sanctuary. Such a blessing to have the opportunity to provide food and drinks.

It's a wrap of the final prep work for Thanksgiving tomorrow. Sorry too hectic today for any pictures by me.
7 full pans of stuffing
5 full pans of green bean casserole
120 lbs. potatoes mashed
38 quarts of gravy

Amazing team working together to get it done.
We are full decorated and ready for the people. We will do pictures tomorrow and hopefully remember to do Facebook live at the beginning.

Happy Thanksgiving

All 26 turkeys carved and put away in the fridge. 6 pans of corn casserole, 5 pans of cranberries and 5 pans of yams.

60 quarts of Turkey bone broth simmering away. We are still at it.

36 quarts of fresh cranberry sauce done.

Made quick breakfast for our guests this morning as a treat, scrambled eggs and hash browns

First round of 8 turkeys are done.

8 Spatchcock turkeys going into the ovens.

Let Turkey Tuesday begin. 26 turkeys defrosted..ready to be cleaned an Spatchcocked.

Getting the supplies organized today in advance of Turkey Tuesday.

Today we were blessed by Paolo's of Boca, the 2nd year in a row.
Paolo's donated the entire meal today for the community lunch. They provided enough food to serve 120 guests, and it looked and smelled incredible.
We so appreciate their generosity, time and talents providing the meal for our guests the Sunday before Thanksgiving.

Baked ziti, chicken parm, meatballs, sauted veggies, garlic knots and a fresh salad.

If you have never been there before, you need to check them out. Their entrees are fabulous as well their pizza.

Starting the prep work for Thanksgiving week. Trying to get as much done as possible before "TURKEY Tuesday"
Tuesday we roast and carve 26 turkeys, make all the fresh cranberry sauce, corn casserole & yam casserole.
We have about all the supplies, only things left to get are the 60 pies and cookies next week.

We are going to Spatchcock all the turkeys this year, never tried but why not try for the first time when we have 26 turkeys.

Thank you in advance to Anna Thomas and Magdy Tadros who will be in the thick of it on Tuesday helping me get it all done.

Completely forgot to take pictures on Sunday for the weekly community lunch..oops. So these are just after the pans were assembled. After they came out of the oven they were nice and toasty.
Thank you to Lili Kent for coming in on Saturday for hours and helping pull this meal together.

We made chicken, pasta and broccoli in a white cream sauce. Not as thick as an alfredo but still loaded with parmesan cheese, cheddar, heavy cream, half and half, butter and lots of stirring.

We made 15 whole pans with chicken and 1 whole pan without chicken.

Another picture of the BEAUTIFUL new oven, which was able to cook all 16 pans at one time.

70 lbs. of boneless chicken breast
36 lbs. of pasta
30 lbs. of broccoli
35 quarts of a white cream sauce

Last weekend ran like a well oiled machine.
The Boys were cooking last weekend. They had 3 additional guest chefs, friends that were visiting from Great Britian.
How amazing that they all choose to spend hours prepping & cooking on Saturday, and hours on Sunday prepping and plating the meals.

Fajita seasoned chicken breast over seasoned rice on the side was a hearty black bean, ham, onions, peppers similar to a soup. Both were so delicious. The chicken was marinated overnight in an amazing citrus marinade.

We plated 130+ very hearty portions.

70 lbs of chicken
30 lbs of rice
10 lbs onions
5 lbs green peppers
1 gallon lime juice
Boatload of other seasonings

Tremendous meal.

We were so grateful for the chefs selfless contributions and the delicious meal, our guests came back for seconds and many even for thirds.

Thank you to our US Boys -
Magdy Tadros Joseph Divico

Thank you to The Boys from Britian: Chris Wood, Dan Towers & Russell Pepper

Did you know?

Meals with Meaning is open 6 days a week, we serve on average about 250 guests weekly. We have volunteers of all ages and faiths.

Monday - Friday we are open from 10 AM - 12 PM.

We roll out 2 silver cabinets:
1. Non-perishable - filled with canned goods and snack items

2. Hygiene - filled with things like: toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, deodorant, razors, shave cream, tissues, femine hygiene items, cleansing wipes, shampoo, conditioner, nail clippers, sun screen, body lotion, laundry pods, cough drops, Q-tips etc.

Guests are allowed to select what they want.

We have sock day and under garment day once a week, we get donated Bombas socks.

We have a coffee batista making fresh coffee, tea or hot chocolate for our guests

We have sandwiches, snacks, water & desserts. Access to frozen meals and frozen meats

Sunday's we are open from 2 PM - 3 PM for a hot meal, cool drinks, water, snacks, sandwiches and desserts.

We also have access to a mobile shower trailer.

This happened.....
Let me put it in perspective...some of our guests likely had not even eaten yet on Sunday and waited in line to get their hot meal, instead of rushing off to feed themselves, they sat down for this incredible opportunity to do mindful meditation and movement. Some opted to do the meditation before even getting in line for food.
This opportunity just illuminates the fact that people need to be fed in all different ways. It made such an impact on our guests just to sit down and be.. just be present and engaged with other people.
I don't know the right words to explain the sense of community and caring that was happening on Sunday.
Incredible.

The motto at Meals with Meaning is feeding the mind, body and spirit.

Bravo to Laura Waldorf Reiss Kindness Matters for putting this together with her Incredible mother Linda Baratz.

WOW !!! Kindness Angels Laura Waldorf Reiss Kindness Matters descended upon us this past weekend. They have always been and continue to be incredible supporters of Meals with Meaning - St. Gregory's Episcopal Church and donating monthly to our guests that need a helping hand, food and of course kindness.

We were blown away by the abundance of baked ziti, meatballs, roasted veggies, cut up fresh fruit, fresh garden salad and brookies

We were able to plate:
177 baked ziti, meatball and roasted veggies
122 salads
136 cups filled with fresh fruit
18 vegetarian penne with veggies
Endless brookies

If that wasn't enough they donated so much non- perishable items also:

499 cans of pasta
695 fruit cups
96 vienna sausage
17 jars of peanut butter
118 cans of soup
17 cans of tuna
44 cans of pork n beans
563 individual packets of tissue

Beyond incredible. Thank you so much for your donations.

This past Sunday's community lunch consisted off Trader Joe's Savory Herbed chicken thighs and Southwest style potatoes skins.
Forgot to get pictures of the potato skins after they baked, but they sure looked pretty all toasty.

The Trader Joe's thighs were EXTRA HEAVY on the mint flavor, so we had to rinse every single one of the 250+ thighs by hand. Thank you to our first time volunteer, Lili Kent for getting those thighs rinse off.

We had 400 potato skin shells.
We made a Southwest filling and simmered it to blend the flavors:
3 lbs sauted onions
420 oz of black beans
220 oz of corn
110 oz of crushed tomatoes
110 oz of diced green chilies
TONS of seasonings

We filled all 400 potato skin shells with the mixture and topped off with 25 lbs of crumbled queso Blanco cheese.

The thighs retained the hint of mint and the green coloring, but thankfully they still tasted good and our guests enjoyed the meal.

Lucky Friday the 13th !!
This past Friday we had an ice cream party thanks to Kindness Angels. We make flyers and posted them last Sunday to let our guests know Friday was ice cream day. Our guests were excited and patiently waited all week.
Needless to say Friday was a big hit.
Kindness matters always, the smallest thing could have such a huge impact on another humans life.

Our Community lunch 2 weeks ago was hamburgers, cheeseburgers and Rose's World 🌎 Famous macaroni salad. It's likely our most requested food.

Sorry, completely forgot to take pictures 🙄

13 lbs. pasta
6 lbs carrots
8 green peppers
3 lbs. onions
2 gallons of mayo
7 dozen hard boiled eggs
It made 40 quarts, which translated to 140 servings which went quickly.

Abundance...that's the first word that comes to mind about last Sundays community lunch.
The Boys were cooking this past Sunday. We got all the supplies to make pasta with a creamy cheese sauce, ham and peas.
However when we got to the church to due to some technical difficulties at the kitchen, our stove top wasn't working.
So we had to come up with a new plan, we split up and each made part at home and met back at the church 4 hours later to assemble it all.
The Boys rolled with it and pulled it all together, thank God. Thank you chefs Magdy Tadros and Joseph Divico 👨‍🍳 👨‍🍳

68 lbs of ham
26 quarts of half and half
24 lbs of peas
40 lbs of pasta
Sprinkled each pan with Romano cheese and panko bread crumbs.

In the end we made 20 full pans and plates over 230 meals.

Pretty amazing.

Meals with Meaning has a new double oven waiting to be installed. We will post pictures once it is. It increases our oven space by 50%, which is super exciting.

Today's community lunch was amazing. Sliced sausage, onions, carrots, red skinned potatoes in gravy. Think pot roast but with sausage.
100 lbs of red potatoes
25 lbs of carrots
15 lbs of onions
70 lbs of Italian sausage
14 quarts of Turkey gravy

Thank you to Palm Beach County Food Bank for the 70 lbs of sausage and the gravy. Thank you to Publix for donating the sausage to Palm Beach County Food Bank. Thank you to Primal Kitchen for the donation of the Turkey bone broth gravy, it was delicious. We were able to plate 157 meals today to be given out to those in need. These donations are life sustaining to many of our most vulnerable neighbors.

We also made up 30 quarts of a Jambalaya soup with donations from Palm Beach County food bank. Such a treat to be able to make 70+ servings of soup for our guests.

It was a tremendous amount of prep work and cooking on Saturday, but so worth it to be able to provide food for so many.

The community lunch this after was breakfast for lunch.

We made:
148 Sausage/egg/cheese biscuits
30 lbs of sliced bacon (21 full racks)
42 lbs. of potato rounds stuffed with cheddar/mozzarella cheese.

We plated around 130 meals in total - how wonderful!

There were a lot of moving parts to pull it all together, but thankfully it all worked out.
Another amazing donation from Palm Beach County Food Bank.

The kitchen smelled incredible, I mean come on, its BACON 🥓!!

This past weekend "the boys" took over the kitchen again. Sunday's menu was Jambalaya!!
Saturday was prep day, cooking and cutting up 35 lbs of chicken, 30 lbs of sausage, a ton of frozen peppers/onions and 30 lbs of white rice.
Add to all that a wonderfully seasoned red sauce to really pull it all together.
The kitchen smelled amazing 👏.
In the end they plated over 175 meals, that right 175 meals - crazy.
Thank you Magdy Tadros Joseph Divico Steve Facella Joseph V. Puleo
The guests came back for seconds and thirds and there was plenty left over to hand out during out pantry hours in the week.
Such a blessing to have them come in one weekend a month and lend their time and talents, the guests appreciate it.
Another meal completely free (aside from the serving containers) thanks to Palm Beach County Food Bank !!!

This past Sunday's community lunch was Chicken Parmigana with pasta in a red sauce.
60 lbs of breaded chicken cutlets
30 quarts of red sauce
30 lbs of ziti pasta
12 lbs of shredded mozzarella cheese
4 lbs of grated romano/parmesan cheeses

The kitchen smelled amazing again. We plated over 110 hot meals.
The portions were huge!!

Bonus is everything with the exception of the cost of containers was 100% free, all donated by Palm Beach County Food Bank - how amazing is that?

Donated food going right to the most vulnerable in our community.

God is good ALL THE TIME.

Delayed posting, 2 weeks ago Kindness Angels descended again collecting tons of non-perishable goods for our most vulnerable community members.
They also prepared a delicious beef burrito casserole, Spanish style rice, roasted veggies, fresh fruit, fresh salad and their signature Brookies for dessert. The meals were very HEARTY and our guests were thrilled. The Kindness Angels are such a blessing to Meals with Meaning, and we are so grateful.

Delayed posting. Our Sunday community lunch 3 Sundays ago was: Honey ham, maple glazed carrots and shredded potato tots with cheddar & Mozzarella cheese.

Let's talk kitchen prep. Did you ever wonder how the MWM team is able to plate 100+ meals every Sunday? Prep work on Saturday is critical. I've included pictures from both Saturday & Sunday. The BOYS as we refer to them were cooking this weekend. That meant them coming in with a couple of friends to start the prep work on Saturday. Marinating 60 center cut pork loins. Making 80 quarts of fresh green bean salad with purple onions, cherry tomatoes and home made balsamic vinegarette. As well as a mountain of rice.
On Sunday, the pork was seasoned to perfection and so tender, our guests were thrilled. In the end we plated 124 hot meals and 100 containers of green bean salad, once again THE BOYS made the kitchen smell heavenly.
Meals with Meaning is very blessed to have such dedicated volunteers, especially the ones that can cook.

Kindness Angels weekend. We served Beef hot dogs, cheese tater tots, sauted peppers/onions, coleslaw, fresh cut up fruit, freshly baked ciabatta bread and their signature dessert; brookies. We also had a donation from Palm Beach County food bank of cucumbers. So we sliced those up and served them with ranch dressing on the side.

We plated 182 meals plus had 36 hot dogs left over that we wrapped individually. Our guests will be able to enjoy the food over the next couple of days.

It was a great weekend, super hot, the guests especially loved the cold cut up fruit and coleslaw.

Plus someone took some candid shots of the kitchen crew in action 😊

Our community lunch today was EXTRA plentiful. We made about 220+ stromboli.
Pepperoni & Mozzarella, Ham & Mozzarella, 3 cheese served over 30 lbs of pasta with a pasta sauce combined with a lot of heavy cream. Chefs Magdy & Joey really knocked it out of the park.
Our guests were thrilled. Pepperoni was the best seller for sure.
Thank you to Palm Beach County Food Bank, their donations to Meals with Meaning - St. Gregory's Episcopal Church provided the ENTIRE meal with the exception of the containers/bags. Truly a blessing to the most vulnerable in our community.

Sunday's community lunch was sliced Smoked Sausage, peppers, onions with roasted potatoes. We plated 115+ and gave out 89 for lunch. Happy for some leftovers for our guests that come to the pantry today.

Buffalo chicken mac & cheese with a side of greenbean casserole. Our kitchen taste testers gave it an official YUM!
Special thank you to Marcia Landgraf and Phyliss Houghton for coming in on Saturday to help get the food all prepped so it could just be warmed up on Sunday for the meal.
There were a lot of moving parts.
We plated over 150 meals. Such a blessing 🙌

Today was our first Sunday celebrating worship in our temporary space during the "construction/remodel" project of the main church. God willing we will be back in our main church by Christmas. The last picture I took was this morning at 6:45 AM before anyone arrived on our campus, so beautiful.

Shepherd's Pie was last Sundays meal.
It was a bittersweet time, great having The Boys back in the kitchen, but we were all really missing Scott Nelson. I like to think that Scott was there in spirit helping guide the meal.
The meal was delicious, can't even describe how great the kitchen smelled.
We plated about 130 very HEARTY meals.
Such a blessing.

Kindness Angels descended again this past weekend to bless us with a delicious dinner and so many non-perishable donations.
Guests were thrilled with their baked ziti, meatballs, roasted veggies, fresh salad, freshly cut up fruit, ciabatta rolls and their signature dessert Brookies.
The food was abundant, were had enough to feed our guests on Sunday and Monday.
We plated over 150 meals.
Such an amazing group of people doing such incredible things.

We went out of our comfort zone for yesterday's meal. We made a coconut curry simmering sauce with chickpeas and served it over rice. First time making a curry simmering sauce and I think we knocked it out of the park. It was well seasoned with Coconut milk, curry, tumeric, ginger and cayenne pepper (gave a very slight heat). We made about 30 quarts of the simmering sauce. For meat eaters we served with chicken tenders for our vegetarian friends we served with fresh roasted green beans. Ended up plating about 150 meals, such a blessing.
The kitchen smelled amazing.

This past Sunday's community meal was a bittersweet moment. If you've read our posts in the past you've heard us refer to the "Jersey Boys". A fantastic trio of chefs that come once a month and cook from their hearts for our guests. Sadly one of these amazing humans, Scott Nelson passed away last month. Our hearts were broken with Scott's passing, he was a special guy and wanted to honor him. This past Sunday we had Scott Nelson Sunday. In memory of Scott we served up a meal that would have gotten his seal of approval: Burgers, Brats, hot dogs, baked beans with extra bacon, coleslaw, macaroni salad and potato salad.
Meals with Meaning held a special place in Scott's heart, and he held one in ours. He selflessly gave of his time and talents every month, that's just who he was.
Rest easy my friend, Chef Magdy & Chef Joey will continue on in your honor.
It was a privilege knowing you and having you help serve the vulnerable in our community.
Rose & Gena Vallee