Feeding Empty Little Tummies (FELT)

Solomons Cares.  That's the bottom line really, you can see this in the support by the local business community for the local ministry to feed hungry children.  On Friday evening The Lotus Kitchen hosted an event designed to raise funds for HeartFELT.  Friday evening is a big night for most restaurants and Lotus is no different.  Even knowing that, The LotusKitchen hosted a cook-off between two pastors and a 'guest.' 

  

Getting set up in the porch area

The first customer!

a couple of the entrys

  

It's fairly well known that the Lotus has Mac-N-Cheese during the winter.  This came up during a discussion at Solomons United Methodist Church, where the two pastors thought their own mac-and-cheese was actually pretty darn good too.  Senior Pastor Meredith Wilkins-Arnold and Associate Pastor Matthew Tate felt they each had the best.  The idea of a cooking throw-down was born, and there's no better reason to have a contest than to support a charity.  Pastor Meredith is on the Solomons Business Association and her contest gained the attention of The Lotus Kitchen.  The idea grew even further with the participation of Stony's Kingfishers Restaurant in the cook-off. 

One of the 'voting' jars

For $10 anyone could buy a sample of each of the three entries and decide which was best.  There were no names on the samples, so each diner could decide without prejudice on which was their favorite.  The samples were distinctive.  It seemed the youngest in the crowd were drawn to the more plain and mild entrant.  One entry had pieces of a turkey Kielbasa and you either loved it or...  not.  The last Mac-N-Cheese sample had some Ritz crackers on the top and created a definitive style.

Lots of fun, even waiting in line

Once you sampled the varieties you could "vote" for your favorite with your dollars by putting your money in a jar in front of each variety.  Each variety had fans, but in the end the amount of money indicated that the Ritz recipe brought by Pastor Meredith beat out Pastor Matthew who came in a solid second with his Kielbasa style. 

I believe this is Eric

The recipes and the outcomes are just part of the story though.  The event was fun for all.  The restaurant was packed.  I'm sure this was in no small part due to the duo that was playing as well.  Their band doesn't yet have a name, but Eric and Bob brought joy to a large number of folks inside the large room inside.  Their combination of folk and older rock had the audience singing along.  They were a joy.

 In the end the mac-n-cheese was very nearly all gone and over $970 was raised through the generosity of the patrons.  This will go a long way to feed the approximately 65 children that HeartFELT benefits. If food is purchased from a grocery store it takes about $11 to fill a backpack.  HeartFELT can purchase food through the organization End Hunger in Calvert County for the cost of shipping.  This means it's possible in some instances to buy a case of canned food for $2.70! You can see how beneficial the donations are!  You can also guess it take a fair amount of money to feed 65 kids every weekend! With that in mind, can it get any better than businesses and community coming together to support those in need?  Nope, and just another reason to love Solomons.

Bob

 


 HeartFELT relies on volunteers at Solomons UMC to obtain, pack and deliver the food to the community.  Stay tuned for a story on them in the future.

More photos and short notes below:

A great hungry crowd came

The Champ!  Pastor Meredith

 There was a nice sized crowd listening to the music.  The room was totally packed.


Three women (Mom, daughter and friend) were in the room listening at a high-top table.  You could see them from the porch by looking through one of the windows.  Once the little one saw me she pointed at me.  Had to take some shots, and a couple turned out alright below:

Pastor Matthew

He likes it, he really likes it

The votes were overflowing!

Nearly everything was gone!