Loop held its monthly Food for the Soul luncheon on Wednesday, November 23rd. Guests were treated to a full Thanksgiving feast, complete with beautiful centerpieces designed by our volunteer coordinator, Doris Gaspar. Loop is very grateful for the members of the Lifetime Assistance work program who assembled the centerpieces and delivered them to Church of the Reformation for this special meal. We are glad to have been able to kick off the holiday season with many members of the Rochester community!

My trip to the Food for the Soul Luncheon was one of the first times I had left the house by myself after my hip replacement. It was nice to get out of the house for a bit, even if it was freezing and there was talk of an inch of snowfall we had received during the early hours of the morning. Several dozen Inner Loop neighborhood residents enjoyed a lunch of southern barbecue in the basement of the Lutheran Church of the Reformation in downtown Rochester.

I had the pleasure of joining two women, a mother and daughter pair, who have enjoyed coming to the luncheon for many years. After everyone who wanted them enjoyed second servings of homemade southern barbecue, each guest was given a bag of non-perishable food items and other household items, like toilet paper, to take home with them. Our executive director, Daryl Staneck, offered up some donated clothing, too. I was touched by Loop’s generosity and thoughtfulness. To give you an idea of the amount of people attended the luncheon, here is a photo of just a fraction of the grocery bags Loop handed out after it concluded!

After the lunch, several guests attended a nutrition lesson provided by the Cornell Cooperative Extension. The instructor received a grant from Eat Smart New York to be used over the course of a year, funding presentations like the one I attended at the Loop luncheon. As an opening activity, we were asked to take some guesses and rank a set of ten different sugary foods in order of their sugar content. A serving, not a bottle, of Coke was at the top of the list that included things like vanilla pudding and Pop Tarts. Many people were surprised and vowed to “rethink their drink” after discovering just how much sugar there is in soda. We all agreed that we did not know how to estimate the amount of sugar in foods, and the instructor taught us to divide the number of grams of sugar listed in the nutrition content by four and the result would be the amount of teaspoons of sugar in the serving. Most people can envision a teaspoonful of sugar, so we found this very helpful.

I look forward to seeing what the November Food for the Soul Luncheon has to offer on November 23rd!