Baking for Bellingham Community Meals 3-4-17

The Fiddleheads reunited this past Saturday for a unique outing: we spent much of a blustery afternoon inside, aprons donned, to bake up a storm for Bellingham Community Meals. BCM is a group of volunteers that comes together once a month to prepare and serve a warm meal free to the community. The only thing that isn't prepared onsite is… DESSERT! This is where we put our energy, and the girls collaboratively counted, measured, stirred, whipped, beat, melted, poured…and cleaned! 

After an introduction to our project, we explored questions like: Whose "cups" are we filling today with this project? What other needs are we meeting by helping with this community meal? What impact do acts of kindness and service have on our community? How else can we carry out acts of kindness and "fill cups" beyond this project? The girls responded with thoughtfulness and genuine compassion. We all agreed that filling others’ cups makes our cups more full. Today our goal was to help people meet the basic need of food. But going a step beyond this, the girls discussed how community meals meet other basic needs as well, like love, community, and connection.

The girls split into three groups, with determination to stir lots of love into the batter along with the other ingredients. The kitchen was a-flurry with egg cracking, whirling beaters and recipe checking. We remembered to go one step at a time, implementing our motto, “Think It Through Before You Do.” Soon our treats were baking and our mouths were watering, and we began a serious Leave No Trace kitchen clean-up.

After our hard work we ate lunch, played some indoor games, and then geared up and headed out for a mini-exploration of the grounds outside of the Cordata Co-op. We stopped for a nice surprise downstairs- a local band playing irish folk music to spread St. Patricks Day spirit! After dancing and listening to the music for a while. we headed outside for some fresh air! We explored, got a little muddy, and played games in a park just beyond the Co-op parking lot as we waited for our baked treats to cool. Our time outside was quick, yet very refreshing, and our treats were ready to bag by the time we made it back indoors. 

We enjoyed a final Attitude of Gratitude in our closing circle, expressing thanks for our group, for filling up our "cups" even more, and for the humans who will enjoy our baked treats. 





Our words of the day? "Baking, Fun, Chocolate, Music!"

Mottos especially in use today: Our Cups Overflow, Leave No Trace, Everybody Helps, All Things Are Connected, Widen Our Circle

Check out our photo album of the day here!