You're probably tired of me writing about the Wildwood Soup Kitchen, but I just can't help myself. I am so wrapped up in this wonderful ministry that it tends to monopolize my thoughts, or at least capture the attention of a majority of my few remaining brain cells.
We are currently in the middle of an internal study on improving the efficiency of our overall operation, to include ways to cut operating costs and yet continue to offer our guests quality, healthful and appetizing meals. (Today, for example, we served 243 meals.) One area that has always troubled me relates to the number of ancient and grossly inefficient freezers we own, freezers that run 7x24 and just suck up electricity. We have a bunch of them -- each donated by an individual or business, usually because the donor had replaced it with a more efficient version. As you might imagine, our electric bills are up in the stratosphere. To address this problem we're considering the purchase and installation of a large, efficient walk-in freezer to replace all those old clunkers that take up space throughout the soup kitchen. This would be a major project for us. Purchasing and installing such a freezer, plus all the other changes we need to make, will likely cost us in the neighborhood of $20,000. This is a very large sum of money for an organization like ours.
And so I've been working on a plan that would appeal to the business community to help us fund this project.We intend to approach local businesses, large and small, plus service organizations like Rotary, Kiwanis and Lions, and ask them to buy "shares" in the project. They would not only help us provide a necessary service to the community, but we would ensure their generosity was well publicized. My plan is to kick off this project within a few weeks, once I have all the details worked out. But then yesterday I received a call from a local business asking me to stop by. This afternoon I did just that and was handed a check for $5,000! They want no publicity for their gift so I won't mention the name of the company, but thanks to their generosity we are now 25% of the way to our goal...and we haven't even started the effort. God is good.
The occasional, often ill-considered thoughts of a Roman Catholic permanent deacon who is ever grateful to God for his existence. Despite the strangeness we encounter in this life, all the suffering we witness and endure, being is good, so good I am sometimes unable to contain my joy. Deo gratias!
Although I am an ordained deacon of the Catholic Church, the opinions expressed in this blog are my personal opinions. In offering these personal opinions I am not acting as a representative of the Church or any Church organization.
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