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Preparing chicken dinner for The Dorothy Day Hospitality House in Danbury are Anne and John Boehle of The First Congregational Church. —Melody DeMassa, photo |
DANBURY, CT--It is a Friday and mission-minded members of the First Congregational Church of Ridgefield gather in the church kitchen to cook a complete chicken dinner for 100 guests.
The meal will be served at the Dorothy Day Hospitality House on Spring Street in Danbury. Church members have been engaged in this labor of love for 26 years now, every month when there is a fifth Friday.
First Congregational Church’s partnership with the mission in the city of Danbury fits into a pattern that focuses about half of its outreach efforts locally, with the other half responding to national and global needs. And it goes back to the early 1980s when a group in Danbury addressed the need for a soup kitchen in the area.
That soup kitchen opened its doors in February 1982, named in honor of the famous Roman Catholic social activist whose wide-ranging work began among the poor in Depression-era New York City and who had died in 1980.
The Dorothy Day Hospitality House in Danbury would follow her philosophy of “Ask no questions of the guests, just welcome whoever comes as a sister or brother in Christ.”
Today, an average of 100 guests come for a hot meal, which is served every day of the year by groups of volunteers. Various groups prepare and serve many different kinds of meals; the Ridgefield church has become famous with the guests for its baked seasoned chicken, green beans, salad and potato dinner, topped off with dessert. It is a high protein nutritious meal which the guests are quick to say they appreciate.
Although the First Congregational men are on the team, Dorothy Day guests long ago named the group “the chicken meal ladies.”
“They love the meal and we love them.,” said organizer John Boehle. “We bake 240 chicken legs. Why 240? Because that’s all our convection oven will hold. On cooking day the aroma throughout the church building is wonderful.”
Once a year the church’s mission group also serves the “Dorothy Day meal” at a Wednesday evening fellowship event in order to publicize the effort among the congregation.
Anyone interested in learning more or becoming a volunteer is invited to contact the church at:
office@firstcongregational.com
For more info on the Catholic Worker in Danbury contact:
Dorothy Day Hospitality House
11 Spring Street, Danbury CT
Mailing Address: PO Box 922 Danbury CT 06813-0922
Tel: (203) 743-7988
E-mail: webmaster@dorothydaydanbury.org
E-mail: webmaster@dorothydaydanbury.org
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