The Kitchen at St. Paul’s

The people of St. Paul’s Lindsay are very fortunate to have one of the best church kitchens in the Diocese of Toronto. In 1999 a commercial kitchen was built at the east end of the hall to replace the “home-style kitchen” formerly located in what is currently the library. The project was masterfully headed by Al Flowers, who brought the project in on time and under budget. The design specifications and equipment procurement were done by Paul Carpentier who was assisted by the drafting skills of Don Chase. At the same time modern washrooms were built adjacent to the kitchen.

The kitchen design is unique in that consideration had to be given to the many venues it must support: coffee hours, funeral receptions, full service meals, self serve meals and the needs of a number of church groups. It was also built with the realization that it would be operated by volunteers, and that the volunteer base was likely to be lean.

Highlights:

EQUIPMENT: a 3 door commercial fridge, a 2 door upright commercial freezer, a commercial dishwasher complete with clean and dirty dish tables, a commercial 6 burner gas stove, a commercial 36” flat top grill, 2 commercial full size gas ovens, a clean dish cupboard with automatic door, a commercial steam table, and a commercial meat slicer.

SMALL WARES: cutlery for 300, complete set of dishes for 150, dozens of assorted size stainless steel pans (1/6th to full size), various sized pots and pans (up to 8 gallons), numerous linen table coverings (white and coloured), Henkel paring and full size knives, digital thermometers/timers, 2 pour-over coffee machines (and several urns), and literally dozens of the “gadgets” one needs in a kitchen (we’ve nearly got them all)!

In May 2009 Paul Carpentier was appointed kitchen manager. Before retiring, Paul worked for Zellers as a regional food services manager, with up to 44 restaurants reporting to him between Winnipeg and Vancouver Island at one point. His background in the food service industry is being used to help make the kitchen a safer, more organized and more productive workplace. The kitchen is inspected twice a year by the Health Department, who are very pleased with our operation. We do make a point of following health regulations and insist all food for meals is prepared on site or purchased from inspected premises.

In the 11 years of operation the kitchen has proven very functional for all occasions, and has allowed us to serve some very impressive meals. More importantly, it has been a place where not only the body has been fed, but where spiritual needs of both the workers and the guests are frequently being met.

St. Paul’s has a wonderful kitchen that is a pleasure to work in. If you enjoy working in the kitchen and the fellowship that always happens around food, why not come in and give us a hand at one of our many events and see if this is an area where you would like to volunteer. Give Valerie in the office your name and she’ll pass it on to me, or call Paul Carpentier direct at 324-5666.

COOKS’ FARE

It is very challenging to serve 500 people at the strawberry supper when you have cutlery and cups for 150! It is difficult to work with a microwave oven that has “temperamental” buttons! One of the most obvious (and one of the easiest) ways to make sure good things happen in a kitchen is to make sure the workers have the best tools to do the job and that they are in appropriate supply to meet the needs.

Cooks’ Fare was started by Paul Carpentier in late 2009 with the mandate to raise money to purchase kitchen equipment and help cover kitchen repairs, without impacting St. Paul’s General account. Needs were prioritized and the fundraising began by preparing and selling a batch of Muriel Kent’s beef pies, followed closely by 300 pounds of Christmas cake. Since then turkey pies, butter tarts, chilli, a variety of soups, a selection of preserves, muffins and pies have been offered.

In 2010 this group sold over $11,000 of food. With the profits from food sales we purchased over $4,600 of new equipment and small wares, including $900 of cutlery and $1700 of cups. What a positive difference they make! A new microwave was purchased. Two 1.5 litre electric kettles were purchased to give alternatives to the “monster kettle”. New knives, cutting boards (along with a custom built rack), digital scales and timers, spatulas, frying pans, etc., etc. were also purchased. Again, it cannot be over-stated how much safer and productive this makes the hundreds of hours of work our volunteers do each year.

Cooks’ Fare also covered almost $900 of kitchen repairs in 2010, as well as paying 10% of sales ($1,168) to St. Paul’s general account to offset utility costs associated with food production and storage.

We are fortunate to have a great core of volunteers who help with the regular food production and are very grateful to those who step-up to help us with major production runs. In less then 3 hours we have produced over 800 meat pies with an assembly line of 14 volunteers! WOW!

Do you like to cook &/or would you like to learn how to make the products we sell after church? Do you like to support good causes, where you can actually see where the money goes? Do you need to get out of the house for awhile, why not spend some fun time with the “characters” who work in our kitchen as they tend to feed not only the body but the soul?

If this project interests you, please give Valerie in the office your name and she’ll pass it on to me, or call Paul Carpentier direct at 324-5666.