Community Corner

Cooks Come Together to Share a Passion and a Mission

ACC Meals with a Mission cooks meals for area shelters

The sounds of chopping, dicing and sautéing fill the kitchen at along with chatter traveling back and forth among the cooks. Before you know it the room begins to smell deliciously of meatloaf.

Sounds like a typical group of cooks in a kitchen only they are not making meals for a banquet or a room full of diners. These meals are made for the needy.

The ACC Meals With A Mission, a group of 60 plus volunteers who hail from Corpus Christi Church and its sister church Assumption Church of Wood-Ridge, began nearly a year ago when Corpus Christi parishioner and Heights resident Joe Blythe came up with the idea through the power of prayers.

Once or twice a month this group of people gather in the kitchen at Corpus Christi Church to make meals which are then brought to several men and women’s shelters in the nearby area.

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“No one is here for selfish reasons. These people are here because they love to cook and can help others in the process,” said Blythe.

He said he always wanted to run a restaurant and now he has a whole staff only the benefit means so much more as it satisfies a much larger desire by helping others.  

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Blythe humbly says he takes no credit for coming up with the idea but he did get it into motion. When he first approached Monsignor Lewis Papera with the idea he loved it saying it was something that New Energies (the shared mission of Corpus Christi and Assumption Church) had talked about doing but never got started.

Carole Visconte, who organizes the volunteers, says they have a great core group who are so good to work with. Each cooking event involves about 10 volunteers. She coordinates them into teams who take turns cooking.

“It’s great to have a leader who knows what he is doing,” she said about Blythe.

“Everyone has fun,” commented Maria Wojcieschowski. “We are here from about 5 to 9 p.m. but the time goes by so fast.”

Over the summer Blythe and the initial team of volunteers began to organize ACC Meals with a Mission and by December they began cooking. It’s run like a business, Blythe says as many of the volunteers play important roles. Carol Walsh and Maria Defedele  do all the shopping for food supplies. Nancy Stahlnecker is the fundraising coordinator.

Walsh also arranges the cooking events based on the needs of the shelters and organizations they work with. To date the group has cooked 538 meals and are on deck to cook  630 meals in March. The cooks make new meals each time and have served up meatloaf, chicken and rice, shepherds pie and lasagna.

Depending upon the needs of the shelters the group will either deliver the food hot to be served or packaged to serve later, Walsh explained.

Blythe said the church supplies the mission with some funding and they have also received contributions from private and anonymous donors. The way Blythe sees it is - for just one dollar the group can feed one person.

Inserra Shop Rite donated 200 juice boxes and 200 snacks, Walsh said, which the group uses in its bagged lunch program and was a huge savings for the mission group.

“It’s not a church thing, it’s a community thing. We are feeding those who need to be fed and if you want to come help you are more than welcome to,” Blythe said explaining that many members do hail from both churches but some just join because they want to cook and be involved.

They are working to involve the schools as well. Kids are not allowed in the kitchen but they can come into the cafeteria and assemble sandwiches, juices and snacks for the bagged lunches, Blythe says.  

Walsh said they are also working with the Corpus Christi School to get the children to donate juice boxes and snacks for the bagged lunch program. She said it’s important for children to know that there are some children and adults in this world that are less fortunate. 

Every time a new group of volunteers enters the kitchen for the first time they all seem to just naturally fall into place, baking, chopping or sautéing.

It’s a mission for those who want to get their hands dirty, Blythe said of many of the volunteers he works with. He has found through this mission that many people don’t want to be involved with prayer groups or Bible study- they want to be in the kitchen cooking. “As a parish this really rounds out what we have to offer,” he said.

“We got a pretty good group here. We are in it for the long haul,” said Blythe.

Donations can be made to: ACC Meals with a Mission, c/o Corpus Christi Parish, 218 Washington Place, Hasbrouck Heights, NJ 07604. For more information or to volunteer contact Joe Blythe at 201-522-1516 or email blythe2@optonline.net

 

 

 

 


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