Out our way: ‘Soup Kitchen’ dinner will bring world hunger close to home

Colleen Slater

Out our way

The Longbranch Improvement Club will again be the site of a “live” demonstration of world-wide hunger on Fat Tuesday, Feb. 24.

The LIC teams up with the Key Peninsula Family Resource Center, the Key Peninsula Community Services food bank and the Home Port Restaurant to present the “Feast or Famine” meal.

This year’s “hunger banquet” will be a Soup Kitchen, with all participants receiving a bowl of soup. To demonstrate world hunger, however, 10 percent of the ticket holders will get a multiple-course meal, 20 percent will receive an adequate bowl of soup and a roll, and 70 percent will stand in a soup line to have their bowls partially filled with a thin soup that will leave them hungry.

Carolyn Wiley of LIC suggests fasting the day of the event to “make that bowl of broth taste even better!”

Last year’s event served about 80 people and brought in nearly $4,000 for the Key Peninsula Community Services food bank.

Sunnycrest Nursery will provide table favors, and coupons from other local merchants will be included in envelopes each diner will receive at the door.

All participants will open their envelopes together, and the contents reveal which table they will go to: The head table (10 percent), the central tables (20 percent) or the fringe tables (70 percent).

Judith Weinstock of Kingston, a cookbook author, caterer, culinary arts instructor and former restaurateur, will be the main speaker.

The overall theme is sustainability and encouraging individuals to grow some of their own food.

Chair Vicki Biggs, KPFRC family support worker, says they hope to feed up to 150 people this year, with more time to advertise the project, plus encouragement from those who attended last year.

Committee members include Carolyn Wiley, Penny Gazabat, Vicky Lilyeblade, Arlyce Kretschman, Norma Iverson and Wally Johnson. Iverson and Johnson are the dinner cooks.

Gazabat, executive director of KPCS, notes that, since October, the KP food bank has served 270 families a month, and she expects that number to rise in the coming months.

Besides food donations, the food bank has a need for cash to cover many additional expenses. Some include gas and maintenance for the trucks that pick up food, electricity costs for several refrigerators and freezers, garbage pickup, building maintenance, and little things like zipper-closure plastic bags for bulk items and rubber gloves for food handlers.

Gazabat says KPCS can help those who qualify for the Pierce County Energy Assistance Program.

And she says volunteers, especially drivers for food pickup, are always needed and welcome.

Feast or Famine

The Feast or Famine event will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Feb. 24 at the Longbranch Improvement Club.

Tickets need to be purchased by Feb. 20, so the cooks know how much food to cook. The ticket price is $25, and they are available at Sunnycrest Nursery, 253-884-3937; through Vicki Biggs at KPFRC, 253-884-5433; Penny Gazabat at KPCS, 253-884-4440; Home Port, 253-884-374; or through Carolyn Wiley, 253-884-9157.

All proceeds go to the Key Peninsula Community Services food bank.

At the event, a silent auction will be held, including a soup tureen and soup bowls by potter Gary Anderson, and a model historic ship by Dave and Paula Wickland.

Soup bowls crafted by the FINE Mud Hens, Karen Craven and Ginger Kryger, and dry soup mixes made by Ruth Circle of the Longbranch Community Church, will sell for $10 per bowl or bag.

Colleen Slater writes a monthly column for the Neighbors page, focusing on the Key Peninsula. She can be reached at cas4936@centurytel.net.