40 May 2020 | prestonhollowpeople.com
Living Well
TEAMING UP TO FEED THE NEEDY
Silver Linings
HPUMC, Preston Hollow Catering provide meals to shelters By Rachel Snyder People Newspapers
H
ighland Park United Methodist Church and Preston Hollow Catering teamed up to help serve people in need amid the COVID-19 outbreak. Donations from church members support the caterers’ efforts to make initially 1,200 lunches daily for local shelters, including Austin Street, Stewpot, Genesis, and Wesley Rankin. They’ve also delivered meals to homeless residents at CitySquare, and on March 27, a day schools didn’t provide meals, church volunteers delivered to families of Dallas ISD students.
It’s been lifechanging to me to see how many people are in need and how many people are generous. Joan Thompson “Our plan is simple. Instead of bringing in volunteers to fill and deliver lunches for the needy,
With funding from Highland Park United Methodist Church, Preston Hollow Catering workers prepare and distribute meals to Dallas homeless shelters. (PHOTO: CHRIS TAYLOR)
we hire out of work caterers to do it, essentially creating a works
project initiative,” said the Rev. Paul Rasmussen, senior minister
at Highland Park United Methodist Church. Joan Thompson, the owner of Preston Hollow Catering, praised the generosity that made their efforts possible. Preston Hollow Catering opened in the summer of 2003 to serve the Preston Hollow area, according to prestonhollowcatering.com. She and her staff of about 25 deliver the meals directly to the shelters as part of the endeavor and have since scaled up their efforts to make up to 2,500 meals per day. “The magnitude of the need in this city is beyond what anyone (can imagine). It ’s been life-changing to me to see how many people are in need and how many people are generous,” Thompson said. She added that she’s grateful to be able to keep her employees working despite increasing restrictions on gatherings and rules limiting restaurants to drivethrough, pickup, or delivery service to prevent the spread of the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. “Employing my people is fabulous because they’ve been with me for many years,” Thompson said. “I’m proud to be part of this.”
Keeping Up With Christy and Kersten Hopefully, columns by our food-loving friends Kersten Rettig and Christy Rost will return to our pages soon. In the meantime, you can keep up with these remarkable women online. When Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins announced a shelterin-place order, Rost, the cookbook author and public television chef, and her husband decided to cut short a planned three-month stay at their Park Cities condo. Instead, they headed back to their mountain home in Colorado.
Like most Americans, I’m making only the most necessary trips to the grocery store. Christy Rost Go to christyrost.com to check out her blog, “Notes from Swan’s Nest.” It now features a new stay-
On her website, Christy Rost continues to blog about food, adding particular emphasis during this time to recipes preparable with items likely already available in the pantry, fridge, or freezer. (COURTESY PHOTOS) at-home recipe weekly. “Some are recipes I’ve developed over the years - others I’m creating as I go along,” Rost said. “In every case, the recipes feature ingredients most home cooks already have in their pantry, fridge, or freezer.” Many of the recipes allow her to stretch ingredients for multiple meals while others “inject a bit of joy” into dining at home. “Like most Americans, I’m
making only the most necessary trips to the grocery store, and I’m spacing those trips out to once every two weeks, so I’m relying on what I already have available in the house,” she said. .”Did you know you can freeze milk?” Rettig also remains enthusiastic about food writing, even while so many of her favorite Park Cities and Dallas eateries adjust to take-out only. Visit peoplenewspapers.com
and our social media channels to see her ongoing contributions. She’s written recently about “DIY Croissants?” and other goodies from Bisous Bisous Pâtisserie’s Freezer-to-Oven Collection. Rettig also reported on the owners of Pecan Lodge establishing a foundation to help those impacted by COVID-19 and launched a “Social Distancing Dining Guide.”
What a spring! It’s been volatile both in the weather and our lives. Despite the upheaval that a tiny organism has wreaked on the world, optimism abounds. There are some silver linLEN BOURLAND ings. Like? Nature. Have the flowers ever been more luscious with all the rain? It is healing. Humor. I have never laughed so much as the daily jokes, videos, and memes flow to my phone. Now I smile when I still get cruise ship brochures. If they can hope for better days, that’s the least I can do. Even on the rainy days when I felt like a slug staying in my bathrobe until mid-morning before changing into yoga pants, I found ways to feel productive. I turned the oven to self-clean while binge-watching the Worricker Trilogy. And Zoom. In addition to businesses, Bible studies, boards, book clubs, families, and even my pledge class learned how to join a meeting and see one another looking like the old Brady Brunch opening credits. We have shared our Netflix faves, our book titles, our recipes, our stories, and felt accomplished. Besides new technology, there is another benefit this spring. Walking. America is on the move. We have the most exercised canines on the planet. Families are pushing strollers and riding bikes, waving to anyone and all. Appreciation. There’s the weirdness of it all: no end of year turnover meetings, graduations, banquets, picnics, and the rush that is May. Yet the unity of all being in something together makes this crisis bearable. Don’t we appreciate all who serve us now? There’s a new recognition of those who are the glue that keeps society together. The sanitation workers, delivery drivers, grocery store clerks, and pharmacists are my new heroes. When Mother’s Day comes due this May, in addition to appreciating all that moms do, we can add to the list teacher. Homeschooling has enabled moms (and dads) to realize just what their children are learning and how valuable teachers are. Gratitude and kindness. The silver lining of spring has been the incredible acts of service in the grocery stores, sharing by neighbors, and uplift from the faith community. So, while parents are tired, health care providers are exhausted, children cooped up, we keep on keeping on because that’s what an optimistic America does. It’s who we are. Reach Len Bourland at lenbourland@gmail.com.