Why does an American cook 700 Christmas dinners and bake 22 turkey
'25.12.2018'
Source: The Washington Post
66-year-old resident of Washington, DC Carolyn Marshall prepares a holiday dinner for 700 people every Christmas.
The teacher’s assistant literally prepares a whole truck with food for Washington residents who cannot afford to set the festive table, writes The Washington Post.
The woman gathers a small army of volunteers who come to her home to help pack the food and deliver it to the addressees. But the dishes - 22 turkeys weighing 460 pounds (209 kg), minced meat, side dishes and sauces - Marshall cooks herself.
“I don’t trust this job to anyone else, I want to get it right,” she says.
She begins preparations in September - she sends letters to people who have previously donated to a similar charity event, founded in 1957 by Marshall's mother, a famous preacher and public figure. Reverend Annie Woodridge was known throughout the city as "Mother Dear", a nickname given to her by her 11 children and reinforced by her good deeds.
Woodridge ran after-school and summer camps for children, helped create resumes for the unemployed, advised criminals who were recently incarcerated, and distributed meals to homeless people.
The action, which she started in the basement of an apartment building on Half Street, turned into a three-story community center on Florida Avenue, which, after her death, began to manage her daughter's 1987 year.
In 2010, the owner of the building where the foundation was located decided to turn it into an apartment building, and Marshall had to leave the premises. After that, the woman could not find another building for a fund whose rent she could afford.
For one year, Marshall did not feed those in need on the holidays because of this situation, but then decided that it was wrong, and ended up turning her own home into a kitchen for preparing meals. And it is quite a challenge to cook 22 turkeys with just one oven.
Every year, local social services agencies send her lists of people who need help, and then the woman goes shopping.
Shopping is a whole science. She usually takes one cart, which she pushes, and pulls the other. She needs 36 large cans of beans; 12 cans of yam; 24 cans of cranberry sauce; 24 cans of milk; 20 pounds of cheese; five pounds of butter and 128 boxes of Stove Top filling. Shopping takes at least three hours and costs around $ 1000.
If money remains, she buys desserts. This year, the dessert budget was not enough.
This year, Marshall also had difficulty finding volunteers for packing and delivering food, so she had to seek help from family and friends.
Volunteers coming to her house for the first time may be surprised to find that it is decorated not with a Christmas tree, but with a menorah. In 2014, Marshall passed a DNA test from Ancestry.com, which showed that she was 9% Jewish, after which she refused to decorate Christmas trees for Christmas. The woman professes Messianic Judaism, but also believes in Jesus.
But most of all, a woman believes in following the example of her mother, that's why she does charity work.
The order of cooking is as follows: minced turkey, then yams, then pasta. The turkeys are already ready by that time, since they begin to cook them in advance.
After that, the volunteers in disposable gloves, aprons and hair nets (the woman strictly follows the execution of these prescriptions) lay out the products in trays.
Then the trays are attached to the names and addresses of those to whom they need to deliver, after which they are given to drivers.
Marshall admits that he often does not sleep on Christmas Eve and in front of her, since the preparation and organization of the whole process takes a lot of time. The same woman arranges the same actions every year for Thanksgiving.
