On Sunday, January 15, two Faith Feeds volunteers, Meg Swayze and Rachael Brugger brought together 30 youth and adults in the kitchen of Centenary United Methodist Church to prepare 20 pumpkin pies from scratch using pumpkins gleaned from Reed Valley Orchard. Think of the chaos of so many middle schoolers and helpers in one kitchen—most of whom have never made a pie from scratch—and you can imagine the EXTREME afternoon of cooking we had!
The youth gathered as part of a service outreach for their Confirmation class. “Confirmation service component exists to push students to step out of their comfort zone and serve others in a way that resembles the love of Christ. This is a vital piece of the Confirmation experience because it is so central to what Jesus came to do!” said Eric Ridd, Centenary’s minister to students.
They worked hard, scraping and scooping pumpkins and mixing ingredients. Some of the more experienced pie makers in the kitchen even showed the adults a thing or two about using the food processors. Their work was fantastic!
Once the ingredients were combined, students dumped the mix into ziplocked baggies (which they decorated for the recipients). The bags were frozen and then donated to Morton Middle School, where many of the pie-party participants attend school, and distributed to families within the school system who might not have access to a made-from-scratch meal on a regular basis. It was a fun and exhausting afternoon. The kids enjoyed serving and being part of a bigger picture: taking a discarded pumpkin, turning it into something new (a pumpkin pie), and delivering to those in need. This was especially exciting because those in need were their peers.