Thanks to the more than 100 people who attended the inaugural Pizza Pie Showdown, the Concord Monitor/Concord Insider was able to make a sizeable donation to the Friendly Kitchen.
Last week, we took a very normal sized check – we were vetoed on the idea for one of those cool giant checks – and gave it to Friendly Kitchen Director Tricia Foisey in the amount of $858.14. But that didn’t prevent us from setting up a picture that made it seem like we brought a giant check with us. (Thanks Tricia for playing along with our crazy idea.)
The money will be put into the organization’s general fund and used to purchase things like food and kitchen supplies and equipment, stuff that they don’t receive through other donations.
“We order food when we need it or go to the store,” Foisey said.
While the Friendly Kitchen is constantly getting donations in the form of money and food, there’s always a need for more.
“You just don’t know when the donations will stop,” Foisey said.
And while they get donations just about every day, they also serve a lot of meals. Monday through Friday, the Friendly Kitchen serves lunch and dinner, as well as breakfast and dinner on the weekends.
To put that into perspective, just for the month of March, they served a total of 4,159 individual meals. And that’s not even the highest month so far this year with January coming in at more than 5,000 meals. That’s a lot of food for people who really need it.
If you can remember back to our story about the Pizza Pie Showdown, more than 30 partial pizzas from the event were sent back to the Friendly Kitchen.
Those pizzas helped supply food for three lunches – and was certainly a special treat for guests.
“Everybody was really, really excited,” Foisey said.
And no, they didn’t host their own vote to see who the lunch crowd felt made the best pizza in town
“That would have been a lot of work,” Foisey joked.
The food drive that night also helped keep the shelves stocked.
If you’re interested in helping, the Friendly Kitchen is always willing to accept donations in the form of nonperishable food items, fruits and vegetables and paper products. They cannot accept prepared food.
If you have questions or want to donate, stop by the 2 S. Commercial St. location or call 224-7678.
