How do we feed everyone at Casa Bernabé?
WRITTEN BY EMILY TUTTLE
If you've been to Casa Bernabé, you know the sound of the bell being rung from the kitchen. Within minutes, over 150 people spread throughout our sprawling campus will sit down to a hot meal at the same time. Have you ever wondered how our kitchen staff feeds them all?
We have six cooks on staff at Casa Bernabé led by Yovelyn, our Kitchen Director. They're supported by our teenage kids. All the teenagers help out one day a week and once per weekend. They learn valuable lessons about hard work, as well as useful culinary skills.
The menu is prepared weekly by Yovelyn. She and the cooks work together to balance the nutritional needs, quantities, and budget to feed so many people 21 meals per week. Fresh produce comes from the weekly market trip, and supermarket items like meats, chicken, and cereal are purchased in bulk monthly. We also grow some of our vegetables on campus in the large garden and greenhouse run by Tony Breunig.
Daily activities begin at 4:30 in the morning with the preparation of breakfast. One cook and three boys cover the breakfast shift and prepare approximately 158 breakfast portions to be delivered to the houses at 6:00 in the morning.
Lunch preparation begins at 7:00 by four of the cooks while the kids are at school. They prepare approximately 170 lunches to include the teachers who come from off campus.
Dinner prep begins at 2:00 with two cooks and three of the girls, and they make 158 dinner portions.
When each meal is ready to go to the houses, the kitchen bell is rung. Each house sends a couple of the older kids to the window outside of the kitchen, and they collect all the containers with their house name on them to take back to their house. After each meal, the house parents, helpers, or kids wash the containers and return them to the kitchen before the next meal time so they can be filled again. Notices are sent out to all the house parents about how many containers and which sizes will be needed for each meal. It's a precise system that ensures enough food is delivered to each house and each staff member without a lot of extra going to waste.
By now you're probably wondering, how much does all of this cost? If you imagine grocery shopping, meal prepping, cooking, and cleaning up for a family of 160, the cost in terms of money and time seems huge. But through meticulous planning and teamwork, our kitchen staff is able to feed everyone deliciously and efficiently on a tight budget and make sure the house parents are relieved of the burden of cooking so they can focus their attention on the kids.
Casa Bernabé is a family. They live together, eat together, and work together to care for all the kids God has placed there for whatever length of time they stay. It takes countless hours of preparation and hard work by our accounting department, administrators, garden volunteers, and kitchen staff to budget and plan for the seamless system we see each day. We're so thankful for all their hard work, and when the kids and families sit down to each meal, they offer a truly heartfelt thanks to God for providing such reliable nourishment. So many of our kids come from past experiences where food was scarce, and they do not take for granted always knowing their next meal is provided.
This is all possible because our Casa Bernabé family extends beyond our campus to the many prayer and financial supporters who faithfully remember this ministry. The most helpful thing to ensure we can continue providing consistent, nutritious meals to our staff and kids is to become a monthly donor. Monthly support is crucial to accurate budgeting, and knowing we can count on our monthly donors allows us to focus on planning and care. Money goes far in Guatemala, and our staff's careful stewardship ensures that your gift can nourish many. If you're interested in joining this work as a monthly supporter, please click the Donate link below.
