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Your Church, Nov/Dec 1999
Cook Up a Great Church
Kitchen
Churches show how to fellowship with food
Restaurants around
Willow Creek Community Church in Barrington, Illinois, were packed after
Sunday morning services. When church leaders realized that, they suggested
that the church might want to provide a place where people could fellowship
with food. Today, Willow Creek has an 800-seat, two-story atrium and a mall-style
food court.
You may want to start a food ministry in your church. The first thing you
need is a large, commercial kitchen, right?
Wrong. Church architects and food-service managers advise starting small
and letting facility upgrades follow ministry growth. You should also plan
for the future.
Start Small
Since the majority of meals that your church will be hosting will consist
of food that people prepare at home, Bruce Wardell of Bruce Wardell Architects,
in Charlottesville, Virginia, recommends planning a kitchen in which large
amounts of food can be heated or cooled. "A congregation of 150-200 people
will do fine with a warming kitchen or a large, residential-style kitchen,"
Wardell says. This space should include lots of counter space for salad
preparation, a few heavy-duty ovens, one or two refrigerators, a freezer,
and several microwave ovens.
Plan for growth.
Build in water, power, and
drainage systems for the size of the
kitchen you might want someday
Next, think about cleanup. According to Wardell, one of the biggest dilemmas
for churches with warming kitchens is the dishwasher. "A residential dishwasher
has a 40-minute cycle. By the time it finishes, everyone has gone home,"
he says. One option is to use paper and plastic table service. Another is
to install two or three residential dishwashers. A more costly but better
long-term solution is to invest in a commercial dishwasher.
The Next Level
Making the move from a warming kitchen to a commercial kitchen is a big step,
but a congregation with more than 500 members may want to consider the up
grade, Wardell says. However, the decision must be program driven. "If your
church isn't making it with your old facilities, there is no guarantee
that ministry will happen with a big expensive kitchen," he says.
In addition to doubling the cost, a commercial-grade kitchen is subject to
a higher level of review by the local health department. Health codes vary
from state to state, but most states require a separate handwashing sink
and a two-compartment vegetable preparation sink in addition to clean up
sinks, says Doug Stephens of Hull-Stephens & Associates in Swartz Creek,
Michigan.
Harriet Watts, food-service coordinator at First Baptist Church in New Orleans,
Louisiana, suggests getting professional advice before planning a commercial
kitchen. "Get someone who is an expert because once you've built,
you're locked in," she says.
At First Baptist, a part-time cook, one helper, and many volunteers serve
food to large groups every day. The church offers cafeteria-style fellowship
suppers on Wednesday nights, lunches for needy people on Mondays, lunches
for senior citizens, and more.
The 1,500-member congregation recently completed a new kitchen that includes
a 10-by-10-foot walk-in Thermo-Kool freezer and coolers, Cleveland steamer,
Cleveland tilt cooker, Southbend double convection oven, Southbend six-burner
range top and oven, Magikitch'n grill, Frymaster deep fryers, and an
Auto'chlor commercial dishwasher. To save on clean up, the church uses
disposable table service.
First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, Mississippi, prepares a fellowship
dinner every Wednesday night in a dining hall that seats 500. The church
also provides lunches and dinners for various groups. In January, it feeds
more than 1,000 participants at a men's conference.
Church hostess Ruth Smith says the church has a commercial kitchen with a
walk-in freezer and cooler, three large ovens, a convection oven, and a hot-water
dishwasher. The church does not use disposable table service. It uses either
restaurant-style heavy me la mine dishes or china. Tables are set with white
linen tablecloths.
Plan for It
A commercial kitchen requires infrastructure elements, such as a ventilating
system that can handle the heat generated by appliances. Wardell recommends
planning for that. "Build in the water, power, and drainage systems for the
size kitchen you might want to have some day," he says. If you install
residential-grade power supply and plumbing, you'll have a problem if
you later want to install a commercial dishwasher.
Rolena Prescott, food-service director at Frazer United Methodist Church,
Montgomery, Alabama, amens that advice. "Plan for growth," she says. "If
you have one oven, allow enough hood space to add another. Make everything
a little larger than you need now. Once your space is full, you have nowhere
to grow."
Three years ago, Frazer United Methodist built a large commercial kitchen
and a fellowship hall that seats 1,000. Three full-time workers, a couple
of part-timers, and 525 volunteers now prepare meals for 2,300 people per
week at the church, including breakfast for homeless people, a full breakfast
on Sunday mornings, a snack supper on Sunday night, a Wednesday fellowship
dinner, and more. The program is self-supporting; a nominal fee is charged
for meals. The kitchen facilities were upgraded in stages and only after
current facilities were strained to the limit.
Frazer's new kitchen has a $10,000 Market Forge Combi-oven, an $11,000
Market Forge tilt skillet, two fryers moved from the old kitchen, two Vulcan
six-burner range tops with ovens, a $12,000 Market Forge convection oven,
steam kettle, two large pantries, walk-in coolers and freezer, and extra-wide
stainless steel preparation tables to accommodate up to 30 volunteers at
a time in the kitchen.
Surprisingly, the kitchen has no dishwasher. Prescott says the church passed
that up to purchase other equipment. But the proper plumbing is in place
to accommodate a commercial dishwasher if needed.
Ultimate Kitchen
How big can a church food operation get? Eric Emling, director of Harvest
Ministry, the food-service operation at Willow Creek Community, says what
started as a small staff kitchen has now grown to an 8,000 square-foot kitchen
that serves people in an 800-seat two-story atrium. A mall-style food court
produces $2.2 million worth of food every year, including pizza, pasta,
sandwiches, Asian food, soup, salad, and a variety of food items that can
be prepared to go. All of the food at Willow Creek is prepared on site by
a staff of 36 full-time and part-time employees plus hundreds of volunteers.
Willow Creek's kitchen looks like the food-prep area of a large hotel.
It includes five walk-in coolers and a walk-in freezer, three six-burner
ranges with ovens, a grill, a broiler, tilt pot, fryer, and two greaseless
fryers. Emling says the kitchen uses disposable table service. If linen is
needed for a large event, the church rents it.
People pay for what's offered in the food court, but prices are kept
as low as possible. A full dinner that might cost $12-$15 in a restaurant
can be purchased for $5 in the food court. "Our mission is to provide community,"
Emling says. "We run this like a business, but we aren't concerned with
making a profit. We are concerned with not being a drain on the church budget,
however."
Having clearly defined goals is more important than the size of the kitchen,
Emling says. "Our main goal is ministry, then food service," he says.
Gayla R. Postma is a freelance writer in Morrisburg,
Ontario.
Safety Tips for Church
Suppers
Keep prepared meals frozen until the day before the event. Thaw the meals
in the microwave or refrigerator, then heat until bubbling.
• Perishable food can remain at room temperature a maximum of two hours.
One hour in hot weather.
• Large portions of food should be divided into smaller containers be
fore refrigerating to speed cooling.
• When replenishing food served family style, use medium-sized clean
bowls filled with piping hot food. Discard food left in previous bowls.
• Meals taken home by people or delivered to shut-ins should be either
steaming hot or refrigerator-cold and should be eaten within two hours.
Excerpted from an article by Mary Ann Parmley, contributor to
Food News For Consumers, P.O. Box 371954,
Pittsburgh, PA 15250-7954.
Copyright © 1999 by the author or Christianity Today International/Your
Church Magazine. Click here
for reprint information on Your Church.
November/December 1999, Vol. 45, No. 6, Page 28
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