Food isn't typically served until 9:30 a.m., but most going through the line at the Harvest Soup Kitchen follow a similar routine: bags in hand, some wait outside the kitchen doors as early as 9.
Soup and donated food items are typically the main dishes during the week, but on Fridays volunteers on the opposite side of the table are there as early as 7 a.m. to serve them a full meal.
For a while the soup kitchen primarily served soup, and people weren't using the available community resources well enough to adequately feed people walking through the lines, said Lois Altman, Ball State University professor and director of the Hospitality Food Management Program.
So since 2006 she saw the potential to do more: she's come to lead a group of volunteers she calls the "Friday crew" to make the best of what's donated and available in the kitchen. On one recent Friday the crew prepared baked squash, corn bread and chicken with wild rice.
Before her mother died in 2006, it was part of Altman's weekly routine on Friday mornings to drive to Indianapolis and back to visit her for breakfast. Filling in that time with volunteering after she died was a way for Altman to utilize her skills as well as keep busy.
"It just made sense to do something good here [at the soup kitchen], so my time wasn't eaten up by the office," she said.
As a former social worker with a master's degree in the field, Altman has always taken an interest in food injustice issues and knows the needs of people and how hard it can be on families when there are not enough resources available.
"Why is food distributed this way? Why do people have such an inequality in access? Those are burning questions as far as social justice to me," she said. "Something as basic as food, people should be able to get that need met."
Altman stores supplies and homegrown produce in her cooking lab on campus and utilizes donated food items from Ball State Dining and other area restaurants and food retailers.
She and her husband found 25 large crook-neck squash at a farm stand in Hagerstown earlier this season, and has been utilizing it as a vegetable and substitute for pumpkin pie filling. She and some of the regular volunteers usually "freezer dive" and have a plan for what the next Friday's meal will be, but that all can change based on what donations come in throughout the week.
Improvising with ingredients and the light-hearted camaraderie of the crew are also part of what she enjoys most about working in the kitchen.
"We're just bouncing off of each other and working really, really hard," she said. "But we have a good time.'"
In addition to her work at the soup kitchen, Altman and a colleague have received a grant from Campus Compact to develop recipes from commodities that can be given out and found at food pantries.
"At soup kitchens people don't have food or the way to prepare food, but sometimes they'll get things in a pantry they don't know what to do with," she said. "To get a bag of potatoes, that may not sound very exotic, but if you don't cook a lot you may not know what to do with a bag of potatoes. We've developed those recipes for that."
Retired high school teacher Norm Goethals enjoys volunteering at the soup kitchen on Fridays if not for the cooking, but for the spirit of giving back and talking to regular volunteers as well as those who are passing through.
"The reward is knowing that you're helping someone survive in these tough economic times," he said.
He has been assisting in the kitchen for around five years, he said, doing anything from chopping vegetables for meals to serving them to people going through the lines.
He said he enjoys meeting student volunteers as well as developing the camaraderie with the rest of the regular crew.
Part of what has made the experience an eye-opener for him is seeing some of his former students go through the lines, but said the most shocking thing is seeing young families and children, each of whom walks away with a popsicle.
"It's a treat for them and something they look forward to. It's a treat they normally don't get during the week," he said.
Paid volunteer Kristina Houck has been with the soup kitchen for two years and also typically works Thursdays and with Altman as part of the Friday crew.
When she first started volunteering Houck would see around 50 people come through the line on a good day; this year numbers have consistently topped more than 120 daily, ranging from families and older people in addition to regulars who stop by each week.
"If you're coming to an organization like this, you're picking up something to eat. The last thing they want to see across the aisle is someone staring at them in pity," she said.
"There's nothing wrong with being able to provide yourself with lunch."
During the first of the month numbers are lower because people are receiving and using benefits such as food stamps to get by, she said. Near the end of month when those resources start to run low are when the lines start getting longer.
"The cost of living has gone up, and people have to choose between cost of medications, living expenses and food," she said.
Altman said she would like to tackle the issue of food scarcity in a bigger way than just the soup kitchen, but for now with her busy schedule as a professor, she said that's all she can do for now.
"I've got this window of time I can do on Fridays, but not a lot, so I do band-aids," she said, "but we do good band-aids."
Festive food
Altman wrote "Harvest Handbook: A Soup Kitchen's Guide to Maximizing Resources," which was published last year as a way for people to get inspired to be creative in the kitchen with limited resources. Each recipe yields 50 to 60 servings. Example meals are listed below:
Fall Fulfillment
-Harvest Stew
-Tossed Salad with Vegetables
-Apple Crisp with Cherries
Beef was browned and combined with vegetables to make a rich, hearty stew. A tossed salad with cucumbers, green peppers, red cabbage and homemade croutons were served along the side. Donated apples were mixed with drained, canned cherries for the crisp.
Hearty Harvest
-Ham & Cheese Casserole
-Harvest Corn O'Brien
-Carrot Cake with Cream
Cheese Icing
All of the ingredients for this casserole were donated by local churches or from local culinary classes. The Corn O'Brien was a mix of vegetables that went with the ham and cheese casserole. To complete the meal, carrot cake with cream cheese icing was served.
For more menu suggestions and links to specific recipes, visit harvest.iweb.bsu.edu/menus.htm
Get involved
Interested in volunteering in the Muncie community? Contact Student Voluntary Services (SVS) to become involved.
Contact SVS:
Call at 765-285-3476 or e-mail the office at svs@bsu.edu
Location: 305 N. College Ave.
Hours: 8 a.m. - 4 p.m.
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