News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Colleen Shultz has a heart for people and access to a big kitchen. She's combined the two into an endeavor to bring encouragement and a great dinner to those in the Sisters community who need one or both.
"It's Just Dinner" is held twice a month at Sisters Community Church. The next gathering is Monday, April 20 at 5:30 p.m. Shultz is quick to explain that while it's held at the church, it's not a church activity. This is something she's spearheaded, with help from friends, and it's at the church because they have a licensed kitchen, and plenty of tables and chairs.
"This is a service to the community," she said. "It's for those in our midst who need a place to meet for a hot dinner, who may be going through struggles and need someone to hear their story and to care."
Shultz recognizes that in times like these, many of us are a few steps away from big uncertainties. Some are already there. The fear and alarm spreading through communities both large and small can make people feel isolated and backed into a corner.
As a caterer, Schultz knows how effective a good meal can be in breaking down some of those walls. Meeting around a table with nothing more in common than appreciating the food goes a long way toward restoring the soul.
The idea for a community meal came to Shultz from a Grimm Brothers fairy tale called Stone Soup. In the tale, some hungry travelers enter a town but find the town folk unwilling to share. The travelers bring out a pot, fill it with water, add a stone, and invite the town folk to join them as they prepare "stone soup."
Their curiosity piqued, the town folk gather around. The travelers taste their concoction, telling the town folk, "It's nearly ready, but it needs an onion. Does any one have one to put in?" Someone goes home and finds an onion and into the pot it goes. "Hmm," say the travelers. "It really needs a carrot to be just right." So someone finds a carrot. And so it goes, that each needed ingredient is somehow found and shared, and in the end the entire town, and the travelers, enjoy a delicious repast of nourishing soup.
The moral of the story is that nothing is revealed to be something after all. The original stone was only a pretext to start the villagers sharing in a way they would not have considered had they not had the catalyst of the "stone soup" they thought they were improving.
In the same way, people meeting around a table while they are dealing with unemployment or home foreclosure, facing a bleak future, may find the missing ingredient in the people they share the meal with. It takes a brave person to turn up to an evening like this alone, so if you know someone who would like to partake, invite them and go together.
Schultz's hope is that table talk will result in renewed hope and opportunities. She's also hopeful that the larger community will step up.
"I'm hoping that maybe restaurants in town may help." Donations of food and service are also welcome. "We can use people to help cook, serve and clean up," she said.
Musicians adept at acoustic playing will find an appreciative audience.
The menu for the April 20 meal is pork loin, rice pilaf, vegetables and Texas sheet cake. "It's Just Dinner" starts at 5:30 p.m.
For more information, contact Colleen Schulz at 549-3031.
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