Okay - what is Sardis Doorway and what do I do there almost every week?
Here it is...
Sardis Doorway is a non-profit Christian program for single Moms and their kids up to kindergarten age. It is a program that teaches the Moms, provides them lunch, helps them out in many many ways (like a milk program, food hampers, car clean-up days, dump days, etc, etc) and gives them a place to make friends and talk to others all while capable moms and grandmas take care of their kids. Each week, I arrive at Doorway around 9 when we open together as volunteers. Then I drop Chelsie off at the purple group (1 year olds) and return to the kitchen to work for the rest of the morning. Chelsie plays with the other 1 year olds, enjoys a snack at 9:45, and lunch at 11:30. She is well taken care of while I work. Each week we prepare snack and lunch for about 100 people, including kids. We have a lot of fun while doing it! We make up a large cart divided into 6 colour groups for the kids (purple up to blue). Each colour gets their own jug of milk, bowl of salad, bowl of main course, cups, plates, cutlery, wash bucket, etc. We work hard until around 11:30 when we enjoy a break to eat our own lunch. The moms come into the dining room at 11:45 and after they've opened we put out their food, buns, etc. After lunch, at 12:30 all of the kids are picked up and the moms head home. Clean-up continues in the kitchen, but I leave with Chelsie after picking her up as she's always ready for a
good nap after a busy morning.
Today was a unique day because the three older kids groups went on a field trip to a farm in Ryder Lake. We arrived early to make their lunch and snack ready to send up with them. The menu was hamburgers, macaroni salad, cookies, hamburgers and BIRTHDAY cake for the moms and volunteers staying at the church, and sandwiches, buns, veggies and cookies for the picnickers at the farm. I took some pictures of our work and goofiness today :) Enjoy.
Stella, Raya and Carrie get the first picture. Stella, as you can tell, adds a
lot of life and noise to the kitchen
Because it was before opening, the volunteers weren't in purple yet for Chelsie,
so she hung out in the kitchen until after opening...
The general idea of where she was playing :)
George Friessen has his 'own space' and this is his wife Sarah at his sink
Jen supervising the lettuce washing and cutting - she is the organizer/superviser in the kitchen - a big job requiring planning the meals, figuring out quantities, making a grocery list, and supervising everyone every Wednesday
Chelsie and her friend George Friessen - he taught Gramps and Gramma in Grade 9 / 10!!
Hard at work 
Lettuce smile :)
Opening with the volunteers - run down of what's
happening, devotions, opening with prayer
Last instructions for the field trippers...
Jen's boys waiting in their orange group
Mike, the bus driver
Getting on the bus - Jen's boys were quite excited as
they haven't ridden on a school bus before
Chelsie with Denise, the coordinator of Doorway
"Have fun!" Moms and volunteers waving the kids off
The view from outside the kitchen - lots of hard working and busy people
I dropped off Chelsie at 9:30 when the kids groups usually start -
there were 6 1-year olds in purple today keeping 3 volunteers busy!
Making sandwiches
Wow - a picture of me! Making buns for the adults at the farm
Stella trying to put all of the rest of the egg salad on
one bun - there was enough for 6 or 7!
Sitting near the fan for a break :)
Time for a quick coffee
Mark came to see how Doorway worked today. His wife is a regular volunteer, and he got a taste of what it's like today. He got to cook all of the burgers in a hot kitchen!
Jen scooping macaroni salad
Diana and Hilda help out every week setting and cleaning tables
Denise, the coordinator, with a brand new 5-day old baby girl born to one of our moms - she was over 10 lbs!
Vern trying out the hairnet over one ear ;) We all were laughing!
The cart going upstairs to the volunteers working with the kids -
everything except dessert is on this cart
Tomorrow is Denise's birthday, so last minute we wrote on the cake I'd made for today and presented it to her with 2 tealights, the only candles we had. Everyone sang and it was neat :)
George didn't want any cake wasted!
George Epp bringing the milk cart out - each mom gets a jug to take home
Sorting cutlery...the clean-up continues all morning,
but the major one starts after we've eaten our lunches
The cart from the kids rooms returns and we empty it off...usually there is a tray for each of the 6 colours, but since 3 colours were missing, we had only 3 trays.
The dessert which I made yesterday. Alternating Tuesdays I go and
make dessert for everyone, then return Wednesday to cook and serve.
Busy with clean-up
Hope that gives you an idea of what my Wednesday mornings are like. It's fun but rewarding to think I'm giving back in a small way. I'm blessed beyond measure, and I hope I'm a blessing to others at Doorway! Thanks for reading.
Here it is...
Sardis Doorway is a non-profit Christian program for single Moms and their kids up to kindergarten age. It is a program that teaches the Moms, provides them lunch, helps them out in many many ways (like a milk program, food hampers, car clean-up days, dump days, etc, etc) and gives them a place to make friends and talk to others all while capable moms and grandmas take care of their kids. Each week, I arrive at Doorway around 9 when we open together as volunteers. Then I drop Chelsie off at the purple group (1 year olds) and return to the kitchen to work for the rest of the morning. Chelsie plays with the other 1 year olds, enjoys a snack at 9:45, and lunch at 11:30. She is well taken care of while I work. Each week we prepare snack and lunch for about 100 people, including kids. We have a lot of fun while doing it! We make up a large cart divided into 6 colour groups for the kids (purple up to blue). Each colour gets their own jug of milk, bowl of salad, bowl of main course, cups, plates, cutlery, wash bucket, etc. We work hard until around 11:30 when we enjoy a break to eat our own lunch. The moms come into the dining room at 11:45 and after they've opened we put out their food, buns, etc. After lunch, at 12:30 all of the kids are picked up and the moms head home. Clean-up continues in the kitchen, but I leave with Chelsie after picking her up as she's always ready for a
good nap after a busy morning.
Today was a unique day because the three older kids groups went on a field trip to a farm in Ryder Lake. We arrived early to make their lunch and snack ready to send up with them. The menu was hamburgers, macaroni salad, cookies, hamburgers and BIRTHDAY cake for the moms and volunteers staying at the church, and sandwiches, buns, veggies and cookies for the picnickers at the farm. I took some pictures of our work and goofiness today :) Enjoy.
Stella, Raya and Carrie get the first picture. Stella, as you can tell, adds a
lot of life and noise to the kitchen
Because it was before opening, the volunteers weren't in purple yet for Chelsie,
so she hung out in the kitchen until after opening...
The general idea of where she was playing :)
George Friessen has his 'own space' and this is his wife Sarah at his sink
Jen supervising the lettuce washing and cutting - she is the organizer/superviser in the kitchen - a big job requiring planning the meals, figuring out quantities, making a grocery list, and supervising everyone every Wednesday
Chelsie and her friend George Friessen - he taught Gramps and Gramma in Grade 9 / 10!!
Hard at work 
Lettuce smile :)
Opening with the volunteers - run down of what's
happening, devotions, opening with prayer
Last instructions for the field trippers...
Jen's boys waiting in their orange group
Mike, the bus driver
Getting on the bus - Jen's boys were quite excited as
they haven't ridden on a school bus before
Chelsie with Denise, the coordinator of Doorway
"Have fun!" Moms and volunteers waving the kids off
The view from outside the kitchen - lots of hard working and busy people
I dropped off Chelsie at 9:30 when the kids groups usually start -there were 6 1-year olds in purple today keeping 3 volunteers busy!
Making sandwiches
Wow - a picture of me! Making buns for the adults at the farm
Stella trying to put all of the rest of the egg salad onone bun - there was enough for 6 or 7!
Sitting near the fan for a break :)
Time for a quick coffee
Mark came to see how Doorway worked today. His wife is a regular volunteer, and he got a taste of what it's like today. He got to cook all of the burgers in a hot kitchen!
Jen scooping macaroni salad
Diana and Hilda help out every week setting and cleaning tables
Denise, the coordinator, with a brand new 5-day old baby girl born to one of our moms - she was over 10 lbs!
Vern trying out the hairnet over one ear ;) We all were laughing!
The cart going upstairs to the volunteers working with the kids -everything except dessert is on this cart
Tomorrow is Denise's birthday, so last minute we wrote on the cake I'd made for today and presented it to her with 2 tealights, the only candles we had. Everyone sang and it was neat :)
George didn't want any cake wasted!
George Epp bringing the milk cart out - each mom gets a jug to take home
Sorting cutlery...the clean-up continues all morning,but the major one starts after we've eaten our lunches
The cart from the kids rooms returns and we empty it off...usually there is a tray for each of the 6 colours, but since 3 colours were missing, we had only 3 trays.
The dessert which I made yesterday. Alternating Tuesdays I go andmake dessert for everyone, then return Wednesday to cook and serve.
Busy with clean-up
Hope that gives you an idea of what my Wednesday mornings are like. It's fun but rewarding to think I'm giving back in a small way. I'm blessed beyond measure, and I hope I'm a blessing to others at Doorway! Thanks for reading.
5 comments:
Neat to hear about what all happens at Doorway:) I remember going there as a kid actually... Not for very long but they actually sent me to Columbia Bible Camp as well. Only then it was called Open Door. Great thing that you're doing for these moms & kids!!
I'd never heard of Doorway before. What a great outreach! Great job. Sounds like a big committment but well worth it.
That is a neat program..kinda like family place but more structure and snack and lunch with it.Never heard of it either..they should do an article about it in the paper so more moms out there are aware of it..
hey... where's YOUR hairnet?!?
There was actually an article in the paper last week because the new RBC gave us a HUGE donation :) to celebrate their grand opening! I think word of mouth between these single moms travels fine...there's a wait list to get in!
As for my hairnet, my hair was pinned up good, but I did add it later on :)
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