A wonderful soup, salad and dessert lunch was served at Prince of Peace Church by the Hospitality House Board of Directors on Saturday, November 5th to honor all the volunteers who lovingly share their time and talent with Hospitality House, a haven for homeless women. At the annual Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon hosted each year to honor meal coordinators and preparers, office help, overnight chaperones, handymen and other volunteers, Alice McGregor of Normandy Park United Church of Christ (NPUCC) was honored as the Hospitality House Volunteer of the Year.
NPUCC was one of the first churches to cook for the women of Hospitality House in October 2000. Each night a different church greeter, host, and 2 meal providers were scheduled by the church meal coordinator to provide a meal for the women. By the next April the meal providers were doing the set up and serving of an evening meal to the women who came to the House in a van at around 7 PM. The meal providers stayed to visit with the ladies and usually left by about 8 PM.
As a representative from her church, Alice hosted Hospitality House’s first Halloween and stayed from 7-10 PM! Alice became NPUCC’s Meal Coordinator in July 2007 and started attending the monthly meetings. She took over the job of creating the yearly schedule for all of the churches and other organizations that prepare meals for Hospitality House in 2012 and has continued to compile the yearly meal schedule for all preparers. She takes and distributes the monthly meeting notes from the meal coordinator meetings. But that is not all – Alice collects and delivers in-kind items from her church as needed, is always willing to help with Hospitality House fundraisers and has been known to offer a website article or suggestions for letter campaigns.
Alice loves to make meals for the women. Not only is she willing to share a favorite dish to help nourish, heal and affirm the women, she gets to feel the warmth and bonding opportunity that is Hospitality House. Her gift of a meal, she believes, is returned to her many times over because the women’s appreciation is so evident. A big compliment she once received was when a cook from another night came to church on Sunday and told her that one client was raving about her lentil soup!