Homer folks ‘Share the Spirit,’ one meatball at a time

• 2,500 meatballs, lots and lots of sauce and a lot of love

By Naomi Klouda
Homer Tribune

Helpers by the dozen arrived Tuesday morning for the annual Share the Spirit Spaghetti Feed, overseeing giant vats of 150 pounds of boiling noodles for the masses of soon-to-be spaghetti consumers, or driving box loads of lunches to deliver around Homer.
But long before those early morning hours of hardcore cooking and sauce simmering for the spaghetti dinner that lasts from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Elks Club, people in the community were hard at work creating giant pots of sauce and garlic-buttering bread.
Cindy Smith, cook at Homer High School, takes on the task of par-boiling the noodles every year. She does this on Fridays and Mondays before the community fundraiser.
On Sunday, she baked about 800 chocolate chip cookies. With the help of her trusty friend, Irene Clark, the two of them filled 50 racks with cookies in order to have enough.
And just how many pots does it take to boil 150 pounds of spaghetti? Picture 19 pots, four gallons deep. Picture Smith fretting over the timing, because the noodles are going to have be chilled down with ice so they don’t get sticky and ruined. She’s been doing this for 10 years or more.
“If you’re doing it for praise, you’re doing it for the wrong reasons,” she said Tuesday morning when the process was all done, including any potential hair-tearing crisis. When Smith and Clark finished the noodles and the cookies, they were sent over to Chip Duggan for him to store at Duggan’s.
“It takes a lot of people and a lot of time and a lot of love,” Smith said.
Meanwhile, down the street at Latitude 59, Wendell Cummings was standing over his spaghetti sauce that he started Friday. Cummings’ recipe calls for 35 gallon-sized cans of tomato sauce, several pounds of chopped carrots, zucchini, onions and bell peppers. The process continued into Saturday, as he kept huge pots of savory sauce simmering on his stove at Latitude. Cummings said one batch is for the vegetarians in town, while the other will have a few thousand meatballs added in for the carnivores. About 2,500 meatballs, or so.
“It takes a lot of coordinating,” said Fran McCampbell, who tirelessly champions the spaghetti feed every year. “We start in October, and then right after Thanksgiving, I go into full-speed mode. But I have a lot of people helping me. Last year we fed just shy of 800 people.”
McCampbell said enough food needs to be on-hand to accommodate those who arrive for the sit-down dinner throughout the day, as well as plenty to be delivered throughout Homer.
That’s a lot of elves on both sides of the serving line, she said.
Local radio newsman, Tim White, broadcasted live from the Elks Lodge to remind the community of what the event is all about.
McCampbell noted how many businesses help make the feed possible: Both Save U More and Kachemak Wholesale sells supplies at cost, and nearly all the restaurants in town donate ingredients for the salad, sauce, and bread. It takes some 950 slices of bread for the event, a preparation that’s sure to have a lot of kitchens in town smelling of freshly baked bread.
Going into the season, McCampbell said she was a bit concerned it wouldn’t all come together smoothly because of the suffering economy, and people not having as much to give as they might have in the past. “But I’ve had even more people giving this year,” she explained. “It just blows my mind how many people are willing to donate or give of their time. I am just in awe.”
McCampbell’s spaghetti feed has become a cornerstone for the season’s giving for the past 20 years. It takes about $10,000 in business donations and spaghetti to make Share the Spirit happen. Last year, the program served 181 people, many of those children.
And Shari Daugherty is the choreographer behind all that spirit-sharing.
Christmas trees are now up in various locations around town, containing labeled ornaments that indicate what kind of gift children are wishing for. Organizer Daugherty encourages people to continue to check the trees throughout the week, as new children are added.
As of Friday, the organization had only received 35-40 applications, which isn’t even a quarter of the full number of applications they project they will receive.
“Spirit Trees” are up at Total Office Products, Wells Fargo, First National and Kachemak Gear Shed. Share the Spirit is also hoping to have them at Safeway, Damsel Fly and Ulmer’s.
“We’re still accepting applications through Dec. 14,” Daugherty said. “We’re encouraging people who have children in their households to get their applications in right away. If they are just waiting for a food basket, then it’s fine to wait until Dec.14., otherwise we need to hear from them now.”
Daugherty said business cash donations to Share the Spirit are coming in at a decent pace, but private donations have not yet been on par with previous seasons.
“It’s really easy to do,” she explained. “Every teller at Wells Fargo has a deposit slip, and they can do it right here.”
The Spirit group needs gift-wrappers and food-sorters on Dec. 18 and 19 at the Homer High School commons area. The day begins at 9 a.m. sorting foods for the baskets. The wrapping of Christmas presents starts at 2 p.m. People wanting to help can just show up.

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Posted by Newsroom on Dec 9th, 2009 and filed under Headline News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.