Published in print edition Saturday, April 16, 2011, SW Weekly Oregonian
Photo by Brian Poor seasons oven-roasted potatoes to go into meals he cooked for clients of the West Linn Food Pantry. Poor brings three decades of culinary experience to the outreach, which he started five months ago with the church. Poor serves as the culinary director of Portland City Grill.
“Our church being the Northwest Contexture means we weave ourselves into the community,” said Poor. “Since I have been in the food business for 35 years, I thought, food pantries are great, but what about giving them a prepared meal? It is amazingly wonderful and it is neat to be a blessing to people.”
The menu rotates monthly. Poor described March’s as old-fashioned beef and pork meatloaf with apricot marmalade, oven-roasted garlicky red potatoes and butter-basted broccoli florets.
Poor cooks the meals and church members package them. They doubled the number of meals prepared after just three months. The church foots 90 percent of the bill, with some items donated.
“Brian has a God-given passion for food and this passion led him to see that people would love to sit down to a fully home-cooked, hands-on meal,” said Rusty Massey, the church’s pastor.
Contexture Church meets at 10:45 a.m. Sundays at Rosemont Ridge Middle School, 20001 Salamo Road. For more information, go to nwcontexture.org.
It just goes to show that God can use anyone–like a good cook–to serve the needy. And contrary to outer appearances, there are a lot of needy people in West Linn. This is a nice story that reminds me there people in need in my neighborhood too.