Everybody Eats! Free Community Meal

St. Saviour's will help host November 7

2011-09-25T23:40:00.002-04:00

One of our sponsors, St. Saviour's Parish in Bar Harbor will help host our meal on November 7. We welcome them and look forward to showing them what a great group we have!

Flash In The Pans Benefit Concert!

2011-09-06T22:17:00.002-04:00

We had the most extroadinary evening of fun music, dancing till our feet fell off, laughing and just general fun Monday, September 5th with the Flash In The Pans Steel Band at the Ramada Inn! We are so grateful to the Ramada staff and manager for their courtesy, help, and the donation of the tennis court to use for the event. We had by some estimates, more than 300 enjoying the evening! Thank you Flash, Ramada and all the wonderful volunteers for making it such a special evening - all to benefit our Free Community Meal program - it does not get any better than that!

The Board of Everybody Eats.

Flash In The Pans Benefit Concert!

2011-07-26T20:34:00.009-04:00

Labor Day, Monday, September 5th at 7:30 pm, Flash In The Pans will again regale us with an evening of wonderful music at the Ramada Inn - 215 High Street in Ellsworth. There will be yummy munchies and glow necklaces available by donation. This is the major fundraiser for Everybody Eats -a Free Community Meal, so please be generous - every penny counts!

SEE YOU THERE!

Our thanks to many fundraising donors in Ellsworth!

2011-07-18T16:46:00.005-04:00

We thank the Ellsworth Rotary Club "Noontime Jar" for their generous donation in the amount of $419.29. St. Andrew Lutheran Church donated $360 from their Bean Supper and the Hannafor BBQ gleaned $460.00 for our program. Thank you to all who helped and who donated so generously - every penny is so important for this free community meal these days!

Cookout at the Ellsworth Hannaford Market benefits Everybody Eats!

2011-06-14T20:35:00.003-04:00

Ellsworth Hannaford Supermarket is holding a cookout in their parking lot Saturday, June 18 from 11:30 am to 2:00 pm and donations will benefit Everybody Eats! Come enjoy some great eats and donate to Everybody Eats at the same time!

Come celebrate our 2 year anniversary May 30!

2011-05-17T07:33:00.002-04:00

May 30 we will have a celebration of our 2 year anniversary with a cookout! Come enjoy burgers and dogs as well as scrumptious potato and other salads, cake.... the works! ALL are welcome always!

Flash In The Pans Benefit Concert!

2011-05-16T13:45:00.003-04:00

Flash in the Pans Benefit Concert - Monday, September 5, 2011. Come spend your Labor Day evening with us at Ellsworth Park - on the water and enjoying Flash In The Pans Band! The concert starts at 7:30 pm, but come early to get a great spot and enjoy a picnic dinner! Donations will be taken to benefit Everybody Eats, so please be generous!

Community Matters More Grant opportunity

2011-02-23T14:42:00.009-05:00

Dear Friends of Everybody Eats. Thank you for checking out our blogsite and for your interest in this wonderful program which provides a free, nutritious meal to anyone who comes in the door. As you can imagine, donations and grants are the backbone of this program, along with the hard-working volunteers.

Bangor Savings Bank provides and extroadinary outreach funding program in "Community Matters More" and is in their Campaign for 2011 which provides a total of 68 grants to Maine organizations. The top vote-getting organizations in each region will receive $5,000 and the remaining 60 groups will receive $1,000 each. There are some pre-printed organizations listed as you will see, but write-in organizations have just as much of a chance to win a grant.

Please copy and paste this website address into your browser search area: https://www.bangor.com/Why-Bangor-Savings/Supporing-Our-Communities/Voting.aspx go to the Downeast Region voting area and write in Everybody Eats, Ellsworth. You may also vote at any Bangor Savings Bank location. The deadline for voting is March 7, 2011.

The Board of Everybody Eats and all the guests who have taken part in our program thank you. Every penny helps!

snow days!

2010-12-28T06:49:00.005-05:00

Winter has descended upon us full force in its first week! With blizzard conditions which pretty much shut down the whole state on Monday, our community meal was no exception! As a reminder to all, Everybody Eats' cancellation policy follows the lead of the Ellsworth school system: if RSU 24 is closed, Everybody Eats is as well. Tune to local TV channels 2, 5 or 7 to be sure.
Now let's hope for no more snowy Monday's!

Thanks Everyone for a Memorable FLASH Fun-Raiser Concert

2010-09-20T10:35:00.007-04:00

We can’t believe it’s been two weeks since we had our marvelous ‘fun-raiser’ concert by FLASH In the Pans down at the Ellsworth waterfront Harbor Park! What a great location for such a fun concert like this!

Folks started arriving with their lawn chairs and smiles around 6:30 in order to steak out their spot on the grass carpeted area. The band began their infectious lively melodies at 7:30 and the crowd responded with much applause and a whole lot of dancing. Needless to say, everyone loved it!

From the concession area, one could smell the freshly popped-corn which wafted through the air. There was also a nice assortment of homemade goods for sale along with glow necklaces and water. There was even a kiosk selling crystals and things.

It was easy to see that everyone was having a GREAT time and didn't want the evening to end!

We are thrilled that our 1st event was such a success and now we have something to build upon! We know that next year will be even better!

This concert generated more than $1000 after expenses, which will help us, provide about 800 more meals!!!

We want to thank everyone who support us and contributed to make this evening a memorable one!

mark your calendars!

2010-08-23T21:19:00.008-04:00

Please join us on Labor Day for a benefit concert by Blue Hill, ME based steel drum band Flash! In The Pans. The concert will take place at Ellsworth Harbor Park (public boat launch) at 7:30pm, Monday, Sept. 6th. This will be a great way to mark the end of summer, and an even better way to raise some funds for Ellsworth's only 'soup kitchen'! Plenty of free parking - including handicapped - and refreshments will be available. See you there!

2010-04-24T16:38:00.002-04:00

Many thanks to St. Saviour's Episcopal Church in Bar Harbor for sponsoring our April 5th meal. We served over 100 people and no one went away hungry! From soup to salad to desserts, all was made possible by our very enthusiastic volunteer staff and this generous donation from our neighbors in Bar Harbor.
A very special thank you to the incredibly creative Nancy D., who made this beautiful poster. It now resides proudly at St. Saviour's Church, for all to enjoy!

board meeting update

2010-03-10T06:18:00.003-05:00

Just a reminder that the EE Board Meetings are now happening on the third Monday of the month, instead of the third Tuesday. Time and place has not changed - they still take place at St. Dunstan's Episcopal Church at 4pm. The meeting are open to the public and those with fresh ideas and input are encouraged to attend!

new eats! hours

2009-12-09T06:26:00.003-05:00

Please note that we have changed our hours of service - We now serve from 3pm - 6pm.
As always, please remember that all food is available for 'take out'. Please come and enjoy a meal with us or just stop by and pick up some food to take home - or to bring to a friend or neighbor!

1600 meals and counting!

2009-11-21T10:20:00.001-05:00

My how time flies when you’re having fun! That’s what the volunteers at Everybody Eats! were thinking as they set up to serve their 23rd weekly free community meal this past Monday.
The group, which is made up entirely of volunteers, prepares and serves a homemade, healthful meal free of charge each Monday at St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church.

Their first meal was served on June 8th of this year and while attendance was initially sparse, it has grown considerably. To date, Everybody Eats! has served over 1600 individual meals to people from almost every town on Hancock County, and many from Knox and Washington Counties and beyond.
Everybody Eats! has utilized close to 40 volunteers who over the course of the last few months have logged nearly 870 hours preparing and serving the meals.

The meals are made possible by donations of food, services and money by local businesses and individuals in Ellsworth and the surrounding area. Recent sponsors include Rev. Jerry Stone, Finelli Pizza, Friends & Family Market, Loaves & Fishes, Maine Shellfish, Nostrano, What’s for Suppa? Food Pantry, and The Black House Community Garden.

As colder weather- and thus higher fuel bills- approaches, Everybody Eats! anticipates the need for a supplemental food source will increase dramatically as people struggle with the choice of heating their homes or buying food. The group plans to respond to this need by increasing the amount of food it prepares, but they too struggle with limited resources and encourage any and all individuals or businesses who wish to make a donation to contact Julia Ventresco, 207.667.4472 or email julia@onewomanstudio.com.

Volunteers are needed as well, and can be scheduled by calling Marian Wells, 207.667.6206 or email sagegirlmsw@aol.com.

busy, busy, busy!

2009-10-22T06:54:00.001-04:00

October has proven to be a busy month! Too busy to send out my usual EverybodyEats! update- my apologies!

Our meal last Monday was well attended as always- The menu consisted of Curried Carrot and Potato Soup, deviled eggs, bean and pasta salad, green salad, bread pudding and more!

Many thanks to Loaves and Fishes food pantry, Emmaus Center, Finelli's, and St. John/St. Andrew Church for donating the various ingredients that went into creating the meal.
The only purchase was a gallon of milk ($5.19) for the bread pudding. We made enough food to feed our usual 100 'customers', which means the total cost of each serving was a mere $.05!

Did I mention the 'we' consisted of myself, Julia Ventresco- and the amazing Claudette Werner? Yup, that's right- two of us put on a meal for 100 in a few (very) short hours! Due to a couple of our regular volunteers being out of town and one out sick, it was up to us to 'feed the masses'. If you had looked in on us that day you'd have just seen a blur- we were moving that fast. Thanks also to Claudette for her music mix that kept us jumping. Needless to say we were overjoyed to see the second shift volunteers come in that afternoon!

While the fact that we managed to pull off the meal while being so short handed (and live to tell about it!) is wonderful, the truth is we need more volunteers!
Our volunteers help with: food prep, light cooking/salad making, washing dishes, dining room set-up, serving/greeting and clean up. And we have a lot of fun too!
Please contact Marian Wells (667.6206) or Julia Ventresco (667.4472) to get signed up! We are also looking for an experienced cook who would like to be "chef for a day". No quantity cooking skills are required- I'll help you with that. Did I mention that it's fun?

our salad bowl runneth over

2009-09-18T12:17:00.002-04:00

In addition to our usual fare of soup, bread, and cheese, our meals this summer have been made more complete with the addition of choice selections of garden fresh lettuces and greens from the Victory Garden at St. John's and St. Andrew's churches in S.W. Harbor, Maine.
The gardens have been lovingly tended by Pamela and Cassandra and we all thank them for their generosity and their on-going contributions to our meals!

EE closed for Labor Day

2009-09-01T07:42:00.005-04:00

In observance of the Labor Day holiday, Monday September 7, Everybody Eats! will not be holding its free community meal that day. We will resume serving meals on Monday, September 14.

The Simmering Pot in Blue Hill, Maine will be serving a free meal that day (and every Monday) from 3:30-6:30pm. The meal takes place at the Congregational Church at the foot of Tenney Hill (the end of Main St.)

As always are looking for volunteers to help with all aspects of the Everybody Eats! free meal program. Please contact us for more information about the meals, to make a donation, or to volunteer, call 667-4472 or email everybodyeats4free@gmail.com.

hot stuff!

2009-08-17T19:46:00.002-04:00

It was in the eighty's today in Downeast Maine, but that didn't stop our fearless crew (Claudette, Frank and Julia) from cranking up both ovens and 3 burners, to turn out another stellar meal!
With much donated food and an abundance of ambition, we BBQ'd 40 pounds of chicken, created 3 salads- potato, corn and tossed, veggies and fruit platters (both with dips- one sweet, one savory), and with the addition of bread, cheese, and a few sweets, it was truly a feast!
Our evening staff and clean-up crew this evening consisted of Ron, Valerie and Diane- thanks so much for getting the kitchen back to its original pristine state (and sorry about those baked-on, caked-on, stuck-on pans... ;)

chef d'jour

2009-08-06T07:07:00.004-04:00

Many thanks to our 'guest chef' Diane, who filled in for Julia at our August 3rd meal.
A record number of people were served a delicious meal (fish/corn chowder, I believe), with many 'to-go' orders too!
Thanks also to our dedicated staff of volunteers who gather food, prep, cook, set-up, serve and clean up after our meals. It's a long day, but we always have a good time!
If you would like to volunteer and join in the fun, please email us for more info.

our one month anniversary!

2009-07-01T07:30:00.003-04:00

Everybody Eats! held its fourth weekly free community meal at St. Dunstan's Episcopal Church on Monday, June 29th. The group, which is made up entirely of volunteers, prepares and serves a homemade, healthful meal free of charge each Monday from 3 to 7 pm. All members of the community are welcome to come and dine and socialize, or pick up a meal to enjoy at home. They also encourage folks to pick up a meal to take to a friend or neighbor who might not be able to attend.

Everybody Eats! came together when a group of individuals decided to address the growing problem of hunger and food insecurity in the Ellsworth and surrounding area. Providing one meal each week, as a start, the group hopes to expand to several days a week.

Working alongside local food pantries and others, the group meets regularly to plan the continuance of weekly meals and to discuss future plans for outreach and help.

The meals are made possible by donations of food, services and money by local businesses and individuals in Ellsworth and the surrounding area. This month's sponsors include Maine Shellfish, Loaves & Fishes, Finelli Pizza, Downeast Health Services, the Emmaus Center, King Hill Farm, and Benbow’s Coffee. Start-up funds were generously provided by St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church and the Ellsworth Lioness Club.

Special thanks to St. Dunstan's Church for making available their kitchen and Parish hall. Also, many thanks are due to the volunteers who prepare, serve and clean up after the meals, as well as those who collect donations and publicize the meals throughout the community.

For more information about the meals, to make a donation, or to volunteer, please email everybodyeats4free@gmail.com.