St Euphrosynus the Cook Project

The project below is another response to serving those in need, taken by the scene Charity Committee that helped to find homes for the homeless. This project is one in which everyone in the parish can easily participate, with little organization required. While the time period for it was Great Lent, a number of the parishioners will continue to donate meals throughout the year.

In the spirit of the Lenten season, when we are encouraged to sacrifice and give alma, the Charity Committee, with Fr. John’s blessing, has contacted an established organization and offered so help them in their good works on behalf of St. Herman’s.

The organization is Aid For Friends (AFF), an all-volunteer program, which was founded in 1974 as a response to the elderly handicapped citizens in Philadelphia. To date, they have served over 300,000 meals and are presently serving more than 544 individuals, many in the Chester-Media area.

Aid For Friends has developed into an interfaith community nonprofit network of 2,500 volunteers. This group is composed of persons from all walks of life, all religious faiths, and racial backgrounds, sharing one thing in common: a commitment of service to the adult handicapped and elderly shut-ins, in the hope that because of AFF, their lives will be healthier.

Purpose: AFF provides seven frozen home-cooked, nutritious meals to the isolated handicapped and frail elderly who are unable so shop and cock for themselves because of age, health, and in many cases, poverty. ALL MEALS ARE FREE.

Most referrals are made by caseworkers in hospitals, religious, welfare or social service agencies. The shut-ins suffer from terminal illnesses, emphysema, crippling arthritis, severe heart disease, strokes, loss of limbs and sight: twenty-five percent of the shut-ins are under 65 years of age.

Cooks: individual cook volunteers donate the large majority of AFF meals. AFF asks each volunteer to cook one cc more extra meals each week while preparing the dinner meal for their families. This food is placed in an aluminum tray, covered loosely and put into the refrigerator to cool for 1f2 hour. The trays ace then covered with aluminum foil, labeled with the date and contents of the meal, sealed in plastic bags, and placed ins freezer. The aluminum trays, labels, and plastic bags ate provided by AFF.

Drivers: Some cooks bring the frozen dinners to church on Sunday as part of their offering. A driver who brings them to a central freezer collects

Taken from the OCA Resource Handbook for Lay Ministries