Strengthening SCE’s ties to the Seven Loaves Kitchen in Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania, SCE employees have volunteered their services for each of the last four months and have already requested dates for each month of 2016. Lauren Delguercio, Purchasing Manager, coordinates the effort. “To see the job that (Seven Loaves) Manager Mary Lu and her team do every day, is humbling,” she notes. “Each time our team visits the Kitchen, we walk away a bit more grateful for things we take for granted, and a bit more inspired by people, like Mary Lu, who do this day in and day out with great skill and joy.”

The effort is a great team builder for SCE as well. Seven Loaves encourages its volunteers to create their own dishes and menus. “We walk into the kitchen at 3:00 with no plan,” says Mariah Wheeler, SCE’s longest tenured employee, “and by 5:00 we have soups, salads, several entrees, desserts and fruit ready to go. It’s amazing how it all comes together, and how fulfilling it is to be part of the process.” In addition to Wheeler and Delguercio, SCE team members include Bill Bradican, Steve Button, Dean Argenta, John Lawrence, Kevin Gawason, Gene Talerico, Joy Lewis, Bruce Morgan, Nate Butler, and chief dish and pan washer, Jody Cordaro, SCE’s President.

According to its Website, www.sevenloaveskitchen.org, “The Seven Loaves Soup Kitchen’s mission has been to enhance the health and quality of life of the unfortunate and elderly in our community by providing regular hot, hearty, nutritious, well-balanced meals five days a week at no cost. Over 110,000 meals have been served to the working poor, unemployed, handicapped, limited fixed income seniors, families with children and individuals in need during the past 9 years.” If you’d like to get involved, give them a call at (570)996-5005, or email info@sevenloaveskitchen.org.