Our long anticipated wait to serve dinner at the PACT (Parents and Children Together) Hospitality House finally arrived. A group of us ladies, all United Methodist Women (UMW) from our local church, arrived at the Hospitality House Friday, November 14, to serve dinner to the residents/visitors of the house. These people are usually family of those incarcerated in Fort Worth area prisons.
Left to right: Ann, Lynda, Julie, Joan, and Vicky
Several of our UMW members were already there getting dinner started.
Our menu consisted of chips and salsa to start things off, salad, roast, fresh cooked carrots, tater tots, and bread. For dessert, I prepared two cakes, both Taste of Home recipes, a Caramel Apple Cake and Chocolate Bundt Cake.
http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Chocolate-Bundt-Cake
By the time our guests came down the stairs, dinner was ready. As they lined up buffet-style, we started an assembly line, filling plates with food. Pretty soon all the tables were filled and everyone was enjoying dinner.
Special guests were Kay Jay, the House Manager, and Rev. Suzanne Boeglin, Executive Director.
Here's a picture of Lynda Schraub, President of our UMW unit, Kay Jay, and Rev. Boeglin, left to right:
A picture of Lynda and myself
Everyone enjoying dinner:
After dinner, everyone enjoyed cake and coffee.
Clean up followed while the guests enjoyed their coffee and visited.
Soon it was time to leave. Our dinner was a success. Kay and Suzanne thanked us over and over for providing such a wonderful dinner and expressed thanks also to Taste of Home for initiating Cooks Who Care. We enjoyed it so much, we are thinking of doing this again sometime. Thank you, Taste of Home.
A little more information about PACT from a previous blog follows:
Our UMW unit has taken it upon ourselves to adopt a mission ministry of P.A.C.T., Inc. which means Parents and Children Together, in Fort Worth.
PACT is a nonprofit, multi-denominational ministry. Established in 1984, PACT's primary objective is to help preserve and strengthen families in crisis due to incarceration. Another PACT objective is to prevent the incarceration of future generations by encouraging stronger, healthier families. The PACT Hospitality House provides a safe and supportive environment for families who are visiting loved ones in prison. Several years ago, PACT had to close due to lack of funds, but after Hurricane Katrina, re-opened again. We are doing all we can to help them stay open and recently held a garage sale benefiting the Hospitality House.
For more information about PACT, please visit their website:
http://parentsandchildrentogether.net/default.aspx
or email: pact1924@sbcglobal.net
Wherever there are prisoners, there are unseen family members and children left on the outside of "the wall", who are the invisible victims of crime.