The 5th Dimension

Written by: Kate Snyder, Executive Assistant

Mark your calendars! Clear your schedule! Cancel your trip to Disney World!

June 21

8pm

Heinz Hall

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is bringing the 5th Dimension to Pittsburgh for a benefit concert for non-profit agencies.

Here’s how it works – you buy tickets to the concert, either through us (412-361-5549) or directly through the orchestra website. Indicate that East End Cooperative Ministry is your charity of choice, and they will donate the revenue from the concert back to us! Tickets range in cost from $19 to $110.

Now, I am going to confess that I have absolutely no idea who the 5th Dimension are. Nada. Zip. Apparently this is because I am 25 years old. However, my co-workers who lived through (and still remember) the 60's assure me that they are a fabulous and fun band and that there’s a song about a balloon that is not to be missed. Therefore, I’ll be there with bells on and I hope you will too!

Casbah Benefit Dinner Success!

Written by: Suzan Krauland, Community Relations Director

Each month, Casbah Mediterranean Kitchen & Wine Bar and parent Big Burrito Restaurant Group hold a charity benefit dinner at their 229 S. Highland Avenue restaurant. March 22, EECM was the charity fortunate enough to benefit from their generosity. Thirty-six of our most loyal supporters attended this particular evening and it was amazing.

Those in attendance were able to enjoy a relaxed evening in a comfortable private room, view slides of EECM programs and experience the amazing culinary achievements of Casbah.

The evening started with passed hors’ d’oeuvres that included: wild mushroom bruschetta with melted Juliana goat cheese, lamb belly quince crostini, Moroccan spiced shrimp (with a great little kick), and organic polenta with walnut-roasted red pepper puree. This was accompanied by a fruity glass of Rumball Sparkling Shiraz.

The first seated course was a white bean puree with cubes of rutabaga and butternut squash, garnished with shaved parmesan and fried baby spinach leaves. This soup course was accompanied by Shooting Star “Blue Franc”.

The salad course was winter greens, with beets, pistachios and a sherry vinaigrette. The wine served was a Sauvion Vouray Demi-Sec. Next, red snapper was served on a bed of rapini, mounded on celeriac puree, in a pool of saffron and fennel broth. The fish course came with Pietra Santa Chardonnay.

The lamb loin (yes there was more!) was served alongside two eggplant ravioli, served on a thin slice of grilled zucchini, and dressed with natural jus. This course was served with a full-bodied red, Sipranillo.

And finally, to finish the evening, there was a round cut of Meyer Lemon Custard Cake plated with raspberry sorbet and drizzled with vanilla passion fruit syrup. This came with a cordial of La Casa Narcisi Blueberry Brillante. All this was completed with coffee for those of us who were headed off to watch, sadly, Pitt’s defeat in the Sweet Sixteen—the only blemish on what otherwise was a wonderful evening!

And the best part is, we were able to enjoy this feast knowing our dinner benefited EECM food programs.

How to Have a Heart #6

How to Have a Heart for Hunger

#6 -- Pray for Our Hunger Programs and Clients

At EECM, one of the principles to which we are committed is the power of prayer. We pray for the transformation of the East End according to our faith traditions and our own understanding of prayer, acknowledging our need for divine help to carry out the ministry that we have been given.

So please join us as we pray for:

Our clients in the Food Pantry, Soup Kitchen, Men’s Emergency Shelter and Meals on Wheels—many of these individuals are not only hungry but lonely and frightened. We pray that their physical needs will be met and that they might find peace and comfort.

Our staff – we give thanks for our committed and caring staff without whom we could not offer the services that we do. We pray that they might be strengthened in their duties and that they would be a blessing to the people with whom they work and interact.

Our community – we pray for the healing of our community and for an end to hunger, poverty and suffering in the East End.

If you would like to participate more actively in the spiritual life of EECM, we are seeking clergy and lay people to act as “prayer partners” in the Soup Kitchen and Food Pantry. If you can spare an hour or two once a month to be present and available for prayer requests, please contact Suzan Krauland at 412-361-5549 ext. 411.

Have a Heart Showcase Part 4

Kudos to our latest partners in the fight against hunger – the students of the independent schools of Pittsburgh! It all started with the Hunger Busters and their class project. When we learned about them and the fabulous work they were doing, a light bulb went on here at EECM. Would any other independent schools in the area be interested in taking part in Have a Heart for Hunger food drives?

Two thousand pounds of food later, we had our answer!

We first recruited the girls from the Ellis School to join the Hunger Busters and they in turn challenged the students of the Hunger Busters and they in turn challenged the students of Sterrett Classical Academy and Sewickley Academy to a Food Drive Challenge. Over a period of about a month, students at these schools collected canned goods and non-perishable food items from their friends and family and then hauled it all to EECM! On March 13th, our Pantry was bursting at the seams—filled with boxes of macaroni and cheese, jars of peanut butter, cases of canned soups, boxes of diapers, and happily chatting students. April 5th we will be going to pick up the Hunger Busters’ collection and celebrate with them a very successful campaign. Stay tuned for that update!!!

How to Have a Heart #5

Written by: Kate Snyder, Executive Assistant

How to Have a Heart for Hunger

#5 -- Organize a Food Scavenger Hunt

Try a Food Scavenger Hunt for a fun and easy variation on the traditional food drive theme. It’s especially good for groups of kids – youth groups, school classes, neighborhood play groups, etc. – but is also endlessly fun for the perpetually young at heart.

Here’s how it works:
1 -- Create a list of scavenger hunt items and assign them point values (see below for a sample).
2 -- Divide your pack of participants into however many teams you like.
3 -- Assign each team an adult leader (or just a team leader if you’re doing this with adults, and I highly recommend that you do some time. Nothing says bonding like scouring the neighborhood with your friends for a frozen turkey).
4 – Distribute bags (preferably cloth—let's be good to Mother Earth, shall we?).
4 -- Decide on a time limit .
5 -- Hit the streets! (If you’re covering a large area or have high hopes for collecting large quantities of food, you might want to have a driver with each group so that you don’t have to carry thirty tons of groceries with you from house to house).

At the end of the designated time limit, count up the point values for the foods collected and whichever team has the highest number of points wins! The great thing is (and this is a wonderful opportunity for a “teaching moment,” by the way, so take note) that everyone really wins because the more food you’ve collected the bigger a difference you will be making in the lives of our less fortunate community members.

Feel free to assign whatever point values you like to food items but here are some ideas to get the creative juices flowing:

Peanut Butter -- 5 points/jar
Jelly/Jam -- 3 points/jar
Macaroni and Cheese -- 1 point/box
Canned Soup -- 2 points/can
Juices -- 1 point/fluid ounce
Spaghetti Sauce -- 5 points/jar
Pasta -- 3 points/box
Canned Tuna -- 1 point/can
Hamburger Helper -- 3 points per box
Frozen Turkey* -- 50 points

* Why the fascination with frozen turkeys, you ask? Call it sentimentalism. When I was in high school, my youth group did a food scavenger hunt and my team was the undisputed victor due in large part to the fact that for some mysterious reason (it was nowhere near Thanksgiving) my family had a nice chubby butterball turkey in our freezer. So feel free to put some tricky items on the list. It makes it more fun.

Food for the Soul

Note from the editors: During our Have a Heart for Hunger campaign we seek to look at and understand food in new ways. This therefore seemed like an appropriate addition to the blog! Enjoy.

Written by: Dr. William Johnson, Distinguished Professor of English, Northern Illinois University. Reprinted with permission.

One can look at food as a practical necessity of life. But one can also look at the taking of food as a mindful, spiritually deep act that nourishes both the body and the spirit. Sharing food is one of the most universal of cultural experiences. Expressing thanks for food was humankind's first act of worship, food being part of the gift of life. In every culture there are sacred beliefs or divine commandments that require honoring the giver of life through acknowledging the sacred gift of food.

By admitting us to His table, God became bound to us in a unique relationship. By admitting God to our table, we experience the love and beauty of that relationship.

In the Hebrew Scriptures, the breaking of bread symbolized the immutable bond in relationships among all people. The Covenant was reaffirmed through deeply profound meals and feasts. Even the Hebrew word for covenant, b'rith has etymological origins in the Hebrew notion "to eat."

In the New Testament it is through communion that Christians participate in God's presence with us -- and among us -- as individuals and as a community. We share the deeply transformative mystery of pansubstantiation, when bread becomes body (in whatever way we think of it) and wine becomes blood, literally feeding both soul and flesh.

Eating, dining, consuming food, all have the power to bring us into communion with one another and with the divine.

How to Have a Heart #4

#4 Take your sweetie out for dinner

No, seriously! A great way to support the Have a Heart for Hunger campaign is to participate in A Night at Casbah – a benefit dinner for EECM.

Casbah: Mediterranean Kitchen and Wine Bar
March 22, 2007
6:30 – 9:00 PM
Suggested donation $126.00 (includes dinner, drinks and gratuities)

** 100% of proceeds benefit EECM Food Programs

So there you have it – support EECM and win brownie points with that special someone in your life. Does it get any better than that?

To reserve tickets call 412.361.5549 ext 411

Have a Heart Fundraising Update

Written by: Kate Snyder, Executive Assistant

With 3 weeks still to go in the Have a Heart for Hunger campaign, we are making terrific progress in reaching our goal of $30,000. As of this morning, we have raised $23,724.13, putting us 79% of the way to our goal. Hip Hip Hooray!

One of the wonderful things about this campaign is that it highlights the generosity of individuals in Pittsburgh. The money we raise during Have a Heart for Hunger doesn’t come from private foundations or government contracts, it comes from men and women all over Pittsburgh and beyond who give what they can – be it $5 or $5,000 – in support of this vital cause. $15,500 of the money we’ve raised so far has come from individual gifts; the rest from our faithful member congregations and local businesses.

And every dollar counts. Thanks to our anonymous donor, all gifts up to $30,000 will be matched, allowing your donation to go twice as far. To donate to the Have a Heart for Hunger campaign, please click here or send a check to:

East End Cooperative Ministry
250 N. Highland Ave.
Pittsburgh, PA 15206

Have a Heart Showcase Part 3

Who You Gonna Call?

HUNGER BUSTERS!

Meet the Hunger Busters. They’re a social action group at the Pennsylvania School for Blind Children, a private school in the heart of Pittsburgh. Students who are admitted into the school must be both legally blind and also have a serious physical or cognitive disability.

As the name implies, the Hunger Busters are out to rid the world of hunger. The group raises awareness about hunger and collects donations for the EECM Food Pantry. They publish a monthly flier, listing the foods being collected that month and distribute it to the staff and students of the school and also purchase some donations directly at the on-campus store, The Lion’s Den.

The group was organized this year as part of a new curriculum development project called Friday Morning Activity Classes. A variety of classes are offered from dancing to cooking and the students choose which class to participate in. Donna Griffin, a teacher at the School for Blind Children, is a member of the Rodman Street Missionary Baptist Church, an active congregation with EECM. She suggested that the Hunger Busters be one of the Friday Morning Activity Classes and the rest is history.

Tasks are assigned to each of the six members of the Hunger Busters, from distributing fliers, to sorting donations, to purchasing food at the store. The purpose of the group is to promote civic-minded social responsibility.

The smiley young man below is Jason, a sunny teenager who cheerfully proclaims: “I love my life! I love everything about it.” And he especially loves being a Hunger Buster and helping put food on the table for people who can’t afford it.

Volunteer Numbers

Written by: Kate Snyder, Executive Assistant

Just in case you’re not convinced as to the value and importance of our hunger service volunteers, take a peak at these numbers:

We rely upon 81 active hunger volunteers (i.e. individuals that come at regularly-scheduled times--this does not include the groups of varying sizes that come in each and every night to serve dinner at the Men's Emergency Shelter.)

In an average week, our volunteers contribute between 60 and 70 hours of their time to our hunger programs in the soup kitchen, food pantry, meals on wheels and men’s emergency shelter.

If you add in the miscellaneous groups that come each week and total it all up you get nearly 400 volunteer hours EACH WEEK! 400!

I hope you believe me when I say that our hunger programs would be quite literally unable to function without the gift of time given by our dedicated volunteers.

Sign up today!

A Day in the Life of a Hunger Services Volunteer

Written by April Leese, EECM Volunteer

A Day in the Life of a Hunger Services Volunteer…

Hello there! My name is April and I'm a volunteer at EECM. My day is Friday and boy is it a good one. You see, I'm a student at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, up the road in East Liberty. Spending my Fridays at EECM has become a way for me to end the week in a way that doesn't deal with schoolwork and a way to do that whole "put my faith into action" thing. It's great!

So, like I said, Friday... I love walking to East Liberty Presbyterian Church because it gives me time to leave my school stuff behind. I usually show up at the Food Pantry in the morning (but not too early)! I love to sort the donated goods or make up bags of groceries to give to clients later in the day. There's something that appeals to my rather efficient self. Of course, first you have to learn things like: the “soup” category includes baked beans but not black beans. But, don't let this scare you, it's not overly difficult.

When lunch time rolls around, there are a couple of options for me. Sometimes I work in the Soup Kitchen assembling trays of food or dishing out soup. Sometimes I do more donation sorting (on a good day, there can be a lot). Sometimes I do random tasks that need to be done like getting the Extra Room ready.*

Then it is time for my lunch. Fridays is soup and baloney sandwich day at the Soup Kitchen. Although I'm not the hugest baloney fan, somehow it's ok at the Soup Kitchen. Plus, the soups are fabulous and you never know what it's going to be. Some of my favorites are Italian vegetable and Thai vegetable but regulars like tomato or ham and bean are also good!

At one o'clock the Food Pantry opens. My most regular job at the Pantry is interviewing clients. This is very interesting. I get to talk to them about how they are doing, see if the weather is affecting them, and tell them about ways of getting extra help for any needs they have. I also get to do lots of paperwork!

If there aren't lots of clients or if there are lots of interviewers, I get to do other stuff. Last week I cleaned out the refrigerator. More commonly, I help enter data we've collected, file paperwork, or do other things like that. At three o'clock, it's time to distribute all of our extra bread and produce and then I walk home, happy and rather tired.

Why do I do it? Well, the obvious answer is because I think that God tells us that we are to feed the hungry! Even when I'm scrubbing a fridge or doing paperwork, I'm helping to do that and that's a pretty awesome thing. Another reason that I volunteer is because it's a great way to end the week. I love the people that I work with and the clients can be pretty fun too. Basically, I do it because I love it and I think that it is a tangible way of showing God's love for the world.

So, stop by, we'd love to have you. Talk to Emily, the Volunteer Coordinator, or click here to sign up now! Because believe me, no matter what you're good at, we have a way to use you!

* When clients come to the Food Pantry, they receive two large paper grocery bags full of standard non-perishable food items such as spaghetti or macaroni and cheese. They then go to the Extras Room to “shop” for perishable food items—like bread and produce—and to pick up a bag of miscellaneous groceries that have been donated.