Who doesn’t remember the monotony of eating lunch at school? What parent wouldn’t appreciate a break from planning and preparing lunches for their teenagers? Well, every Tuesday at noon, ten regular volunteers (and three subs) provide that reprieve by preparing lunch for up to 200 high school students in Niverville—and all it costs is two toonies.
Lunches are served at Son City, across the street from NCI, rotating through seven menus—lasagne with bread sticks, chili and tacos, quesadillas, pizza buns, chicken fingers, and perogies with farmer sausage . The meals, served with a salad or vegetable, are prepared between 9:00 a.m. and noon. Multiple helpings are permitted, but only one dessert per student. Desserts vary from week to week and include ice cream cones, Rice Krispies squares, brownies, cream puffs, ice cream sandwiches, and ice cream treats. The favourite drink, hands down, is the slushy.
The basement hall quickly fills with kids who, when seated, are asked to remove their hats for prayer and a five-minute devotional presented by one of six youth pastors who serve in Niverville. These ministers value the weekly lunch as a connecting point with youth, where they can engage with kids in an informal manner.
Then kids line up at two food stations and are almost magically served up within a half-hour. The day this reporter attended, 144 lunches were served, 50 fewer than the week before. Veteran volunteer leader Evelyn Rempel speculated that the lower numbers were due to the long weekend and kids thinking it was Monday.
First-time volunteer Jennifer fondly remembers her Son City lunch days as a student back in 1991 when the cost was two loonies and the drink served was warm orange crush.
Indeed, the two slush machines are a treasure and have a special history. Eight years ago, high school sociology teacher Brad Mehling encouraged a group of his students to submit essays for an opportunity to win a $2,000 grant. They had to explain why a deserving charity that reached out to the community should win. Curtis Sawatsky’s essay about the Son City lunch ministry won. The money, given by the Loewen Foundation, enabled the purchase of the two slush machines, one of which had to be replaced last year for a cost of about $3,600. They are the unique domains of Marlene Stott, who knows how to work them and prepares trays of slushies in advance and places them in the chest freezers. It’s something to behold when Evelyn approaches those trays and flips the straws into the glasses two by two.
“Evelyn does everything,” the volunteers crow about their leader of ten years. “She is amazing!”
Evelyn bakes homemade croutons for salads, grates bulk cheese at home, and fills her SUV with supplies from Wholesale Club (a four-hour task every second week).
“It is so full that I have had to open the box of breadsticks and poke individual packages into small spaces to get them in!” Evelyn says, laughing. When she’s five minutes from Niverville, she phones ahead and several volunteers appear to help unload. “We almost break even. Word of Life makes up any shortfall from their funds.”
The ministry originated in 1986 when Tassos Xanthopoulos was senior pastor of Word of Life Church. The youth pastor, Paul Derksen, proposed the lunch as an outreach of Life Ministries to Youth. Joy, Xanthopoulos’ wife, agreed to do all the cooking for the 25 students who regularly showed up. She led the ministry for many years with the aid of a few volunteers.
At the mid-morning break, one volunteer produces a dessert and coffee is served. Volunteer Lois Wiebe smiles as she says, “Here there is ministry within the ministry, an opportunity to serve each other, bond, and form friendships. It’s an exciting thing to be a part of!”
The dessert volunteer is the one to take the tea towels and aprons home to be washed. Victoria and Marg Paver made specially designed aprons with a Son City logo sewn on them that capture the spirit of the volunteers in a very charming way.
Volunteers stand for almost four hours and dishes are washed by hand. The organization is breathtaking. For instance, I witnessed three large boxes of chicken breasts being precooked for a meal two weeks in advance because the ovens would be needed the following week to cook lasagne. Five batches of brownies were being prepared on huge baking sheets for the next Tuesday.
“Kids really are thankful,” says volunteer Kayloma Capps. “They’ll say thanks every time they’re served.” Well, most of them anyway.
