our local agencies could really use a helping hand from us right now
By: Faith Bahadurian
During holidays we are urged to join in the spirit of giving. We count our blessings, most of us, and hope we can pay our own good luck forward by donating to favorite charities or lending a helping hand to someone who needs one.
For many people, this extends to a year-
round commitment, whether by toiling away in a low-paying human services job, or working as an individual volunteer "in the trenches" with one of those organizations.
To me, two of my colleagues at my day job at Princeton University especially stand out. One of them has made many early-
morning runs, picking up day-old bread from Panera Bread in Princeton and taking it to the Crisis Ministry in Trenton. She also gives up the comfort of her own bed to spend the night with families temporarily housed in local churches through the Interfaith Hospitality Network.
Another colleague and her husband regularly cook and deliver dinners for families being sheltered by the network and by HomeFront. For parents with demanding jobs and kids of their own at home, this is a time-consuming task as it involved purchasing the groceries, preparing the meals and then delivering them to the families.
Many other local organizations feed the hungry all year round. The Rescue Mission of Trenton served more than 100,000 meals in the last year in its emergency shelter (www.rescuemissionoftrenton.org). Their clients are the hungry, the homeless, the transient and the addicted. Their residential program provides support services to those wishing to make a new start in achieving and maintaining independent living.
Like the Rescue Mission, the four local beneficiaries of Princeton’s annual "Taste of the Nation" fundraiser also provide meals and much more.
Isles, Inc. (www.isles.org) is a community development and environmental organization with a community gardening program that teaches inner city residents how to grow and cook nutritious food. According to their Web site, "These gardens are essential in providing fresh produce to Trenton residents and land for recreation and beautification."
HomeFront (www.homefrontnj.org) aims to end homelessness in Mercer County. As part of that mission, they serve more than 70,000 meals to homeless families annually, with the help of people like my co-worker.
Every week, Mercer Street Friends Food Cooperative (www.mercerstreetfriends.org) distributes 30,000 pounds of food to 60 area agencies and food pantries. Food Cooperative Director Phyllis Stoolmacher still found time to send me the "very easy but delicious" recipe below for potato latkes.
The Trenton Area Soup Kitchen (www.trentonsoupkitchen.org) provides more than 3,000 free meals weekly to people in need in the Trenton area. They are currently at work on a cookbook of recipes collected from TASK volunteers, staff, students, artists, and Trenton celebrities to be sold as a fundraiser in the spring. I have very slightly adapted three of those recipes, all desserts, below.
A recent charitable giving section in The New York Times described the substantial growth in donations to not-for-profits. However, the lion’s share of that increase has gone to medical and educational institutions, not human services agencies such as the ones described here. Add that to "donor fatigue," and our local agencies could really use a helping hand from us right now.
I send the best of New Year’s wishes to "In The Kitchen" readers. Be happy, live mindfully, eat well, and do good.
POTATO LATKES
from Phyllis Stoolmacher,
Mercer Street Friends Food Cooperative
2 eggs
½ onion
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons flour
¼ teaspoon baking powder
3 cups cubed baking potatoes
Oil for frying
Place eggs, onions, salt, flour, baking powder and about ½ cup of the potatoes into a blender. Process at the "grate" setting until potatoes look grated. Add remaining potatoes and process at "grind" setting until all the potato cubes look grated. Do not over process.
Heat oil in pan. Using a small ladle or large spoon, drop spoonfuls of potato mixture into hot pan. Fry latkes about 3 minutes on first side or until golden brown. Turn and fry about 2 minutes on second side. Drain on paper towels. Serve with applesauce or sour cream.
DEATH BY CHOCOLATE
Cathy Ann Vandegrift,
TASK assistant director
Makes 12-16 servings.
1 boxed chocolate cake mix
3 boxes chocolate mousse mix
½ cup Kahlua liqueur
8 Skor, Heath or Hershey Symphony bars with Toffee
1 pint heavy cream
Prepare cake mix and mousse mix according to the directions. Bake cake in one large or two smaller layers. Cool cake. Punch holes in cake with your fingers. Pour Kahlua over cake. Keep candy bars in their wrapper and break into pieces with a hammer. Reserve pieces of one bar for garnish. Break cake into bite-size pieces. Whip heavy cream until stiff. Put half of cake, half of mousse, half of candy bar pieces, and half of whipped cream into a tall glass serving dish. Repeat next layer with remaining cake, mousse, candy bar pieces and whipped cream. Sprinkle reserved candy bar pieces on top. Chill.
BEE’S LAYERED DESSERT
Bee Baker, tutor at TASK
1 cup flour
1 cup chopped nuts
¼ pound margarine, room temperature
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
1 large (12 ounce) and 1 small (8 ounce) container Cool Whip
1 large box pistachio instant pudding
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix flour, nuts, and soft margarine in a 9 x 13 inch baking pan. Bake for 15 minutes. Mix cream cheese with powdered sugar and fold in 2/3 of the Cool Whip. Put second layer on top of cooled first layer. Prepare pudding according to package directions and add as third layer. Top layer is Cool Whip with the nuts sprinkled on top. Refrigerate.

