Meals

The Community Soup Kitchen and Outreach Center serves a hot, nutritious noon-time meal, 365 days a year, to anyone who comes through our doors. The meal consists of soup, an entree, vegetables, salad, bread, fruit, dessert and beverages. Guests are also welcome to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to take with them. In addition, we also offer a take home table where canned goods, fresh fruits and vegetables, and bag lunches and breakfasts are available for our guests to take home and enjoy.

Healthy Choices

As part of our commitment to offer our guests healthier menu options, a dietician from Morristown Memorial Hospital met with the Soup Kitchen staff and team captains to discuss the impact of diet on our guests’ health conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure. Through the health screenings our nurses have been conducting in the dining room over the past five years, we know that as many as 80% of our guests suffer from chronic health conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure. We also know that these conditions can be managed and prevented through healthy dietary choices. With the guidelines discussed at this meeting and your help, we plan to offer our guests the option of a healthier menu without completely eliminating the dishes our guests have come to expect and enjoy.

That being said, we completely understand that for many of our guests, the meal they eat at the Soup Kitchen may very well be their main, if not only, meal of the day. Also, change is often difficult. This new program “Healthy Choices…Healthy Lives!” will incorporate an educational component to help our guests understand the value of healthy eating.

Interestingly, we have noticed a number of guests passing on the main entrée in favor of the soup, salad, bread and fruit dishes for the same reasons we are pursuing this – health issues can be directly attributed to diet and many of our guests already know it!

Portion size and proper balance of healthy carbohydrates and proteins will also be addressed. Since we are always prepared to offer our guests “seconds” no one will leave hungry. Our good intentions of provid ing large and hearty servings the first time through the line often result in more food left uneaten. Rather,a healthier portion first time around with the option for our guests to help themselves to seconds after they have had a chance to relax and digest the first serving will go a long way toward satisfying their hunger in a healthy manner.

So, with that in mind, I hope you find this information as helpful as we did! For more info call the office 973-267-0709