by Dorothy Cebula
Walking near the Garden Room between 12:30 and 1:00 pm, two Tuesdays each month, you can hear energetic conversation and good cheer and see a long table with multiple loaves of bread. These are the Tuesdays when at least fifteen Medford Leas residents from both campuses get together to make more than 225 peanut butter sandwiches. They are part of the “take home bags” that are distributed after dinner to people who visit the dining room at Camden’s Cathedral Kitchen, the largest emergency food service in the city. The Cathedral Kitchen serves close to 300 people each day who may otherwise not have a balanced dinner.
Residents work while chatting to others who often reflect upon the days when peanut butter sandwiches were the comfort food for their lunches. There is also an occasional competition about different techniques for spreading the peanut butter or challenge on who can finish a loaf of bread before their neighbor. With this enthusiastic team, it is not surprising that seven large shopping bags of sandwiches are filled and ready for Jay Wilder, the activity organizer, to drive them into Camden. Jay reports that there are cheers from the Cathedral Kitchen staff when they see his bright red car approach their door.
