When Lee Pease and his family, residents of Haddonfield, decided to volunteer at Cathedral Kitchen in 2009, there was never any thought that it would last four years. Lee’s son Luke needed to fulfill his church community service commitment for his Confirmation, and the family decided to donate their time making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
“It started out as just another volunteer effort,” Pease said. “As a family, we’ve done volunteer work in Camden before, so it was an easy decision for us when it came time to decide what we would do with Luke, but I don’t think we quite knew it would ever last so long.”
During the four years the Pease family has volunteered at Cathedral Kitchen, they have made more than 30,000 sandwiches, which has cost the family roughly $6,000.
“I think the numbers really speak for themselves,” Colleen Rini, development director at Cathedral Kitchen, said. “The family has definitely been very helpful in their volunteer efforts, and we hope they can inspire others to do the same thing.”
The Pease family has already inspired many who have helped along the way. While the project began as a family volunteer effort, it turned out to include friends and other members of the Haddonfield community.
“After about the first year, we started hearing from friends and some of our neighbors that they wanted to help,” Pease said. “So, they started helping us make the sandwiches and it just continued to grow.”
The Pease family met twice a month to make the sandwiches. With the help of friends and neighbors, the family was able to make an average of 350 sandwiches per hour.
“Let’s just say we got pretty good at making the sandwiches,” Pease said. “We worked it like an assembly line and everyone knew exactly what they were doing.”
The sandwiches are given to those in need in Camden. The Cathedral Kitchen offers one hot meal per day to those in need, but to provide them with more food, they also provide sandwiches and fruit they can take home with them.
“While its great offering one hot meal a day, a lot of the people coming in here need more,” Rini said. “So, by offering these sandwiches, we can do even more for the community.”
The Pease family has retired from their sandwich making days. After four years, they have decided to pass on the torch.
“At a certain point, we knew it would come to an end,” Pease said. “Luckily, we’ve found some other people in the community who want to continue making the sandwiches, which is great.”
The torch has been passed on to the Pelose family, also of Haddonfield, who have taken on the responsibility of organizing the monthly meeting and making the sandwiches.
“It’s wonderful seeing people get involved,” Pease said.” I never thought this would turn into a neighborhood and community affair when we first started, but it is a testament to the community and we hope this continues to grow.”
