5670-R3_CIC_May2018_Calendar_Web

Island Commons Notes from the Hall

hours per soup, including shopping and prepping, in addition to four hours for setting up, serving, and cleaning up. Given our usual crew of six or seven people in the kitchen, that is around thirty hours of volunteer time for each two-soup meal. And Community Lunch involves even more time, with shopping, prep, and cooking taking an average of sixteen hours before the food arrives in the Hall kitchen and another at least twenty-five hours of volunteer time setting up, serving, and mopping up afterward. Again, any “magic” perceived by our loyal lunch goers is actually the result of an incredible number of hours behind the scene and much dedication. This year we served our meals family style, meaning that we put eight portions of each menu item on each eight-person table. If we had leftovers once everyone had received their initial portions, we readily offered them. Planning for these lunches is part art and part guesswork.We aim to serve fifty to sixty portions, including a small number of veggie-option meals. Often, we run out of food and the kitchen help goes without. Conversely, when only forty-five people show up, the volunteers get to eat too and any leftovers can be packaged for the food pantry. We believe that serving meals family style helps promote the Hall’s mission of fostering community, and we count on that feeling of community to make this approach work. We apologize for running out of food at times, but we hope you will remember that we are all neighbors sharing these Wednesdays together. Thanks for supporting the Hall. Please start gathering your donations for the Martha Hamilton Arts for the Island Craft Swap. We will be ready to roll in late July with hundreds of items to satisfy your creative impulses.

Our Community Lunch program has finished until next October.We would once again like to thank our very generous sponsors for supporting this popular series: Russ and Cathy Hunter, Beverly and Ralph McLean, John and Courtney Wilson, Island Electric, Spec and Grace Eaton, Janna Hobbs and Michael Hollander, Peg Lyons, and Mark H. Dyer, Inc. We already have several donors lined up for next year’s series, but please let us know if you would like to become a sponsor. We would also like to thank Island Electric —yes, you Kim—for your continuing support of coffee hour. Susie, with Gina’s scrumptious baked goods, always makes Wednesday coffee hour at the Hall worthwhile! She will be down at the Hall each Wednesday until Julie resumes her Wednesday hours. We have several anonymous donors whose gifts helped fund the soup lunches this year. Your donations help make it possible to stock our kitchen with recycled paper goods and other green options. We also have our lineup of incomparable volunteers who shop, cook, clean, serve, and make dump runs all in the name of community. Thanks Ruth and Wanda , our soup specialists; Deb Hall, Ester, and Jackie, our willing-to-do-anything-for-the-Hall sous chefs; Binkie, our indispensable dishwasher boss and storyteller; Janna, our resident therapist who talks us down when things get hairy in the kitchen; Allyson and Sharon, who come and make serving a crowd look easy; and Deb Bowman, who designs our menu cards. We have recently tried to calculate the number of hours that go into each Wednesday soup and Community Lunch. Wanda suggested six

Property Maintenance

SAVE THE DATE

Charles W. Hal l

Lawn Mowing, Bush Hogging, Wood Chipping, Stump Grinding, Brush Removal, Rototilling, Driveway Grading, Snow Removal, and more...

PIZZA

R EMODELING R ENOVATIONS Builder

WITH

THE

W INDOWS & D OORS

D ECKS

STARS SATURDAY, MAY 19TH 5PM @ The Hall

Sweating the details

since 1999

Fully Insured

Call Nathan Doughty 712-4017 or 846-4133

207-210-4982

COME HAVE WOODFIRED PIZZA AND ENJOY THE MANY TALENTS OF CHEBEAGUE!

charleshall@chebeague.net

AN EVENING TO BENEFIT THE CHEBEAGUE ISLAND SCHOOL ANNUAL FIELD TRIPS. WANT TO PERFORM? CONTACT ERIKA AT erikagneumann@gmail.com OR CHIP AT westwinds5@me.com.

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MAY 2018 CHEBEAGUE ISLAND COUNCIL CALENDAR