My family is very fortunate, as we’ve never really struggled with anything. We’ve always been fed, clothed and housed, and have pretty much wanted for nothing. It’s been an ongoing thing throughout generations of my family, so it’s important to me to teach my kids to give back and help those who are less fortunate than they are.
Every few months, unless there’s something super important going on, we get my family together to make large meals to deliver to homeless shelters and to people we see in different areas that could use a hot meal. I also post something on our local Facebook page to see if anyone knows a family or individual in need that could benefit from something like this.
Of course things typically increase every year, which is a sad but true reality of our time. We do our best to fulfill as many requests as we possibly can. We are typically pretty successful in our endeavors, and we feed a lot of people.
Our family consists of about 17 individuals, including my own family, my brother and sister, and nieces and nephews. Some of the kids’ friends like to get involved too, which is really great to see. Typically too many cooks in the kitchen are bad, but in this case it’s such a blessing.
We’d make a list of places we always brought to, plus the ones who have responded to our inquiry about those in need, and then add about 15 more on to that just to be safe. It’s never gone to waste before, and if we end up giving someone more than one dish, it’s not like it will hurt anything.
Even with all of those people, food prep by hand is tedious, time consuming and exhausting. Myself, my brother, and my sister all have food processors that we use to make the prep easier. I’d say that it probably cuts the time preparing it in half, or pretty darn close at least.
One month recently we were just inundated with requests and I wasn’t sure how we were going to pull it off. So we had a family get together to try and come up with ideas for a possible solution.
My eldest daughter had just inherited a food processor from her Aunt when she moved into her own apartment. She said she could bring that along, but first she wanted to make sure it was in good working order. I loved that I had instilled this spirit of helping in my children.
I thought it was a great idea, and that it might just be the solution to our problem. She brought it over and we checked it out. Most of the blades were pretty dull, so we thought it may be a good idea to get new ones.
I went on to the KitchenWorksUSA website, where I got replacement parts for my food processor. We were in luck because they sold Cuisinart 14 cup food processor parts. We were successful with finding her new blades. We ordered them right away.
It was the smartest idea that anyone came up with. What a huge difference it made having 4 instead of 3 for this bulk meal prep. We managed to finish everything with no issue at all. I was so relieved.
My sister was actually looking to upgrade her parts also, so I sent her to KitchenWorksUSA as well. She was really happy with what she got. It looked like we’d be in good shape for a long time when we had these parts available to us.
People are so grateful to us, and it’s a wonderful feeling. My kids continue to learn valuable life lessons, and to always appreciate what they have. It also really humbles them to help those in need. I’m very thankful that our Cuisinart food processors make this all possible.
