Kerry employees donate 100 meals
♦ Area foster families are the beneficiaries.
Employees at the Kerry Ingredients and Flavours plant in Lindale spent their Wednesday putting together 100 take and bake meals to be donated to Restoration Rome.
Since opening, the plant has been partnering with local organizations to give back to the community. They also helped create the Kerry Kitchen at Restoration Rome, where foster kids can reconnect with their biological parents.
Last year Kerry employees spent a day there, cooking lasagna and spaghetti for foster families to help feed them for the night. However, according to human resources employee Elliott Rank, they had difficulty cooking large batches of food in the average-sized kitchen.
This year, they decided to move their cooking volunteer day to their own research and development kitchen to make 100 pans of take and bake meals for the families. They made 50 pans of two recipes: cheesy ham and potato bake and smothered chicken enchiladas.
“Basically what we’re doing is assembling, then it goes in a freezer. Then the families put it in their ovens for the final cooking,” Rank said.
Senior Administrative Assistant Dawn Booke said each pan feeds about six to eight people.
Each department had volunteers coming into the kitchen to help prepare the meals. While assembling the pans, the employees wore masks and remained 6 feet apart as much as possible.
Booke planned to deliver the meals Wednesday night to Restoration Rome on Crane Street, for them to distribute to foster families.
Kerry employees also volunteer their time by taking part in Keep Rome-floyd Beautiful’s Adopt-a-mile program.
They recently adopted Old Lindale Road, according to Booke, and make their way out to the road every three months to clean it up.
Booke, Rank and the rest of the Kerry employees hope to continue working with Restoration Rome and other county programs to help give back to the community.