Middle Smithfield Twp. Golf Course
One golf course's leftovers are another soup kitchen's feast
The Middle Smithfield Township golf course's loss is quite a gain for some of the area's hungriest residents.
About $5,800 worth of food from the shuttered Country Club of the Poconos clubhouse restaurant has been donated to The Salvation Army's soup kitchen in East Stroudsburg. The haul provides a variety and quality of foodstuff not often available to those who serve hot meals to the nation's neediest.
WHAT WAS DONATED
Some of the items donated to The Salvation Army, with the quantity and cost:
Franks n' Blankets 1 box (100 count) $41.60
Breaded cheese ravioli 1 case (18 pounds) $60.80
Lobster ravioli 3/4 case (8.15 pounds) $55.59
Herb Garlic wraps 3 cases $73.80
Sweet Potato French Fries 2 1/2 cases $78.25
Beef Top Butt Steaks (6 oz.) 1 case (10.94 pounds) $103.86
Beef Ball Tip Steaks (6 oz.) 1 3/4 case $132.56
Corned Beef Brisket 3 each 11 pounds, $178.53
There is rye, wheat and white bread; Kaiser rolls and buns, mini bagels, ciabatta bread and pretzels. They are among the 80 items pulled out of the clubhouse freezer.
Not to mention bags of cheese tortellini and ravioli, sliced bacon, garden burgers, chicken wings, pickle chips, lobster ravioli, breaded green beans, hot dogs, pesto sauce, cases of sausage links and patties, cheese steak meat, beef brisket, turkey breast, beer battered cod and corned beef.
Donated desserts range from chocolate mint cream, apple and southern pecan pie; triple chocolate cake, carrot cake and sliced peaches, apples and strawberries. The township also donated condiments, gravies, sauces, grits, oils, spices, pastas, juices and teas.
The financially ailing golf course and restaurant were closed by the township in September. Kitchen staff was laid off. Now the township is evaluating whether and how to sell the facilities, or possibly reopen some or all of the complex next spring.
Middle Smithfield donated the food inventory rather than see it go to waste.
"Your gift to us will be used now and throughout the year to support the needs in our community," The Salvation Army's Maj. James Gingrich said in a letter to Supervisor Mitchell Marcus. "As you know, today in Monroe County there are many families who need the life-changing hope — that someone cares."
The Salvation Army will use the donated food to prepare meals for its soup kitchen. Last year, the soup kitchen provided 34,860 meals to 11,400 people, Gingrich wrote. But the numbers are climbing, he added.