Treats for the soul: Citizens raise money for Louisville Community Food Pantry
For weeks around six home kitchens in Louisville kicked out pan after pan of sweet, buttery Saintly Short Bread conceived with the express purpose of feeding hundreds of area families.
Representatives from St. Mary Magdalene Episcopal Church and St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church worked hand in hand to develop the perfect recipe, bake, market and sale boxes of Saintly Short Bread, raised $3,576 and donated all of the proceeds to the Louisville Community Food Pantry.
Tish Easterlin said she was inspired after reading an article about the Ted Lasso biscuit recipe from the hit television show.
“I love short bread and thought that these two very small churches could work together to support a local cause,” she said.
There was lots of testing of recipes looking for not just the perfect tastes, but also the perfect consistency.
Some recipes called for salted butter, others unsalted butter. Some listed unsalted butter but with salt added separately into the recipe. They tried different kinds of butter and flower.
“The flavors and textures were very different,” said Hulet Kitterman, another of the fundraiser’s organizers. “We had to have something that wouldn’t crumble and would freeze well. We knew we couldn’t make it all in one day.”
They ended up adapting a recipe they found online. The cookies had to be twice baked.
“In eight hours you could get six pans of short bread if you worked all day at it,” Kitterman said.
Over several weeks the local cooks went through nearly 300 sticks of butter and bought every bag of rice flour in the vicinity.
The project began in August, the cooking began in October and the final deliveries were made in the days before Christmas.
Kitterman said that all of the ingredients were donated and while they originally thought they might just make 100 boxes or so, the demand for the cookies quickly outpaced all of their expectations.
“When people saw how it was packaged, knew how delicious it was and knew it was going to a good cause, they saw it was a perfect gift,” said Pam Franklin, one of the cooks.
Food Pantry organizer Blanche Greene said that she was blown away by the effort, the offer and the success of the fundraiser.
“I’m in such awe that they thought of it and that it went off like a rocket ship,” Greene said.
In March of 2024 the pantry will celebrate its 25th Anniversary, and Greene said the demand for its services continue to grow.
“It’s an active ministry here in the community. Blanche is very in-touch with people who need assistance. She helps feed a lot of people,” Kitterman said.
“We saw that she was grand marshal of the Louisville parade this year and it really was perfect,” Easterlin said.
In the weeks leading up to Christmas this year, the pantry helped provide nutritious meals for more than 350 area families in December alone.
The pantry, located at 718 W Nelms St, in Louisville, is physically open one day a week, Wednesdays from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. However, Greene said she serves area residents seven-days-a-week and even makes home deliveries.
Just last week a Bartow family lost their home to a fire on Christmas Eve.
“There is always a need and it is growing,” Greene said. “If people show up with an ID and can tell me who is in there house, they're going to get served.”
For more information about the pantry call Greene at 973-951-7827.
This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Citizens raise money for Louisville Community Food Pantry
