Spiritual and Religious Students Make Meatloaf, Cook Up Community

Sixty pounds of ground turkey. Seventy pounds of yellow potatoes. Elevenpounds of salted butter. Fifteen boxes of spice cake mix. These are just a few of the ingredients it took a corps of about 20 students plus the Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life faculty and staff to cook up 210 plates of food for hungry members of the town of Middlebury on Friday, Jan. 15. Ellen McKay, head chef and Scott Center Administrative Program Coordinator, described the annual service project held at Middlebury Congregational Church as a success.

“We went through absolutely everything that we had: every piece of meatloaf, every piece of cake,” McKay said. “We served fewer people tonight than we typically do, but every one of them had a real meal and every one of them walked out of here feeling a little more cared for than they did when they walked in.”

The Charter House Coalition community supper has run every Friday in the basement of 2 Main Street since March 2005. The weekly meal has grown in attendance from 22 guests the first night to over 250 plates served in recent months, said Dottie Neuberger, community supper coordinator. She said different local organizations take turns cooking the free meal.

“We have faith groups, we have businesses, we have service organizations, Middlebury College groups and we have some individuals like book clubs or groups of friends who get together and do it,” Neuberger said. “If you give, you get back a lot, and we like to give people the gift of giving.”

“It’s also a concrete gift,” she added. “I work in the mental health field and that’s very abstract. So when you do something concrete [for someone], it’s a different feeling.”

Neuberger said National Honor Society members from Middlebury Union High School as well as students from the College who volunteer at the suppers often come back again and again.

Some students, such as Matei Epure ’16, were at the charity meal for the first time on Friday. Epure played piano for guests on Friday and said volunteering at the meals could help other College students to refresh their perspective of campus life.

“Coming into America, I saw a sort of America. This is not something I thought Addison Country would look like in any place,” he said. “Middlebury is a bubble that showed last year that we can get very stressed and concentrate a lot on the problems happening on campus. You come here, and you realize that the campus is not the world.”

McKay also said that when students get off campus and partner with volunteer organizations such as Charter House, they remember that many people around the world struggle for resources the College provides to students with ease each day.

“All of our needs are provided for on campus: our heat, our meals. So sometimes, it might be easy to take stuff for granted,” she said. “This gives the students the sense that they might be feeling a little grateful for having their creature comforts met so effortlessly.”

When students do become involved in the local community, McKay said they often make connections to the town that last throughout their undergraduate years.

“Sometimes people just help out for one night, but sometimes it turns into a four-year relationship. That’s happened a lot, actually. And that feeds their souls in a way, to come downtown and do some good,” she said.
For Spencer Egan ’15.5, the past two years spent serving guests almost every Friday night have helped him to connect to a Middlebury beyond than the College.

“I came from a smaller town where I knew a lot of the community members, and in terms of feeling at home in a place, it’s been really crucial,” he said. “Even when I was a little, I’ve always enjoyed talking and hanging out with people in their 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, and older. It’s just a different perspective.”

Like Epure, Egan said college students often feel isolated from the rest of town, and that volunteering with townspeople fosters mutual respect.

“I think every person has their own mental blocks as to how they view the rest of the community,” he said. “It’s about seeing them as people and thinking about their lives, where they’re coming from.”

No matter how long students volunteer, whether for four years or just one night, volunteer Jane Steele said students can expand their education if they choose to do something different on a Friday night.

“[Students] shouldn’t be afraid to come join us,” she said. “We can use help on any Friday – you don’t have to be a lifer. Even to just sit with a group of people at a table. There’s so much that they could do to just be part of the community, a whole different learning experience.”

More information about the Charter House Community Suppers can be found online at http://www.charterhousecoalition.org/.