Sips & Nibbles

Food from the Heart held their seventh “Sips & Nibbles” event in the El Paseo Courtyard for about one hundred people. We all got to wander from one wine tasting room to another – Barden, Happy Canyon, and Grassini Vineyards – sipping as we went. Each place had a table full of yummy appetizers by Aaron Casale Catering, C’est Cheese, and The Wine Cask. The ribs were the best I’ve ever had. But there’s more with desserts by Renaud’s and Nothing Bundt Cakes.

This was all the work of executive director Steven Sharpe and board president Kelly Onnen. Food from the Heart chef is Aaron Casale who prepares all the food for 160 clients each week. These folks are battling illness or recovering from major surgery, live alone, are homebound and don’t have funds for a caregiver. Food from the Heart likes to say, “Heal the Body, Heart, and Soul.”

Volunteers do most of their work – over 150 of them. It takes 60 volunteers each week to prep, prepare, package, and deliver to their clients. They work from a large kitchen in Fellowship Hall at Trinity Lutheran Church at La Cumbre and Foothill on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday mornings. The same volunteers deliver to the same clients each week so they have rapport. Last year they delivered over 8,000 bags of food with volunteers donating over 240,000 hours of service.

They also have the Harvest Program where volunteers go to private orchards and homes. Last year they had so much more fruit than needed they donated 50,000 pounds to the Foodbank, and some to Unity Shoppe, Catholic Charities, and Salvation Army. If you’d like to volunteer, just show up on a Tuesday or Wednesday at 9 am for a brief orientation and then you can get to work.