Dessert!
And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others. -2 Corinthians 9:8
February 20, 2020
Dessert…that special something that you don’t always get. Whether a decadent cake, pecan pie, homemade pound cake, brownies, cookies or a donut, who doesn’t like dessert? The patrons at Café Central love dessert! The rule is, they are not served dessert until they have been served lunch, but if it comes too much later you know they will be asking.
Unlike the meals, dessert is not something Café Central purchases or makes. All of the sweets we have to offer come from the diligent work (Marvin would say, “It’s not work Stephannie, it’s service”) of volunteers and the generosity of local businesses. We have what I refer to as “dessert ladies”. Janine, Barbara, “Little” Barbara, Carolyn and Lillian do desserts on Tuesday while Peggy, Bessie, Darlene and Eloise plate food. It’s what they all do throughout the week in the collection of dessert and food items though, that allows God to generously provide. If it weren’t for the weekly “service” of these ladies, there wouldn’t be desserts to serve.
When I first started volunteering I didn’t understand why everyone only got one dessert. As I have spent more time and understand the process, I now know we are fortunate to have even one. We rely on donations from businesses such as, Kroger bakery and warehouse, Bimbo Bakery, Piggly Wiggly and Dollar General for dessert items. Kay Quattlebaum also brings us homemade pound cake that is coveted and requested by our patrons. The thing is, we never know from week to week what we might have.
The process is very specific. Throughout the week, as desserts are collected, they are frozen to keep until Tuesday lunch. Mondays, the dessert ladies take the items out of the freezer to thaw for Tuesday’s lunch service. Those items are cut, plated and served. Any items donated that have not been frozen are last to be cut, since they might be saved for the next week. Anything left over at the end of lunch service that has already been frozen is then handed out or taken to Maranatha so that we might “share with others”. Thanks to this process there have been few times we have been short on dessert, yet even then, the dessert ladies open a can of fruit and serve something sweet.
So thankful for these faithful ladies that know…”you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others”.
Until we “read” again…God Bless!
You can “GIVE” to our ministry anytime at: https://cafecentralmilledgeville.org/give/
Stephannie Shelton
Stephannie and her husband Doug have been volunteering at Cafe Central for 6 years. They moved from Colorado to Milledgeville Georgia in 2015. That year during Sunday service, the announcement that Cafe Central needed extra help for their Thanksgiving service, brought them for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. They have now served weekly since January 2016. Doug is the volunteer coordinator and member of the Cafe Central Board. Stephannie just likes to talk to, and about, the “family” Cafe Central has become.