Selling the Idea!
WHAT does this ministry do?
We provide home-cooked frozen meals that are packaged for easy delivery and ready to be thawed and cooked by the recipient to anyone in need in our community.
WHO is involved in the ministry?
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A core team (started with 3 and grown to 14) who plan the each cook sessions and support the ministry in various ways.
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Volunteers from our church and friends of volunteers who shop, cook & assemble the meals.
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Deliverers of the meals – Anyone from our church and preschool who deliver to people in need in their world
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Recipients of the meals – About 90% of our meals are delivered to people outside of our church. Those served include; sympathy, surgery, recovery, rehab, delivery of a baby, hospice, broken bone or broken heart, new job, loss of job, new house, relocation, financial crisis, chemotherapy, college student, and chaos
WHERE does this ministry occur?
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Cook & Assemble location for larger cook sessions include:
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Kitchen with basic cooking pots, pans, utensils, oven and stove (convection oven is nice though not necessary)
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Gathering space with tables for assembly of meals
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A freezer to store meals Cook & Assemble locations for smaller cook sessions can be done in someone’s home.
WHY do we do this ministry?
MDM is a natural extension of our church’s mission “You Matter to God. You Matter to Us”. It lives out the mission from God for us to be the hands & feet of Christ. The words that make up our name demonstrate “action” along with empowering people to serve. It is not about the selection of meals that matter. It is shared fellowship while working for Christ in the making of the meals & the delivering of the meals that matters. It is the “doing” that matters! The gift of a delicious meal really does matter to people in this world who are hurting or struggling. The ministry provides the following:
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It lets people who are hurting know they matter to us and to God.
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It teaches to serve and allows old and young and everyone in between an opportunity to serve others. We have preschoolers, elementary students, middle school youth, high school youth, singles, couples, young married families with children, and retirees as our volunteers. The exciting news is that they all serve together!
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It provides fellowship within our organization. We have found that when you provide this time of a service opportunity, fellowship just naturally occurs.
WHEN do we cook?
We vary when we cook, day of week & time of day, in order to involve as many people as possible in the ministry over a years’ time. We often include fellowship time by including food for those preparing and assembling meals. Cook sessions are held as often as needed to keep a good inventory of meals in the freezer. At the beginning, in 2010 when we began we held 2 cook sessions cooking 20 meals and 60 meals. Now six years into the ministry, we have cook sessions about every 2 months and cook 60 – 80 meals per cook session with smaller cook sessions interspersed as necessary.
OTHER INFORMATION
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MDM is funded from the church annual budget, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, and individual donations.
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Freezers – We began with sharing church kitchen freezer, then received a donated 14 cu. ft. freezer, we acquired through Craig’s List our 2nd freezer, which is 13 cu. ft. and now in our 4th year we have purchased our 3rd freezer, which is a 21 cu. ft. freezer
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We have gradually purchase more of our own cooking utensils and supplies
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We continue to add more variety of meals every year
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We have created a website that will be launched in April 2015 that shares all that we do and all that we know including recipes, shopping lists, supplies needed, cooking directions, assemble layouts, label’s, packaging, prayer cards, reply cards, etc. We hope this will allow other organizations the opportunity to start this ministry with much less work then it was for us.