Life Teen Dinners

Hello Life Teen Parents:

Please consider helping out within Parents for Life this year. A huge part of Parents for Life program is helping cook and feed our teens on Sunday evening. Attached to this letter is list of Life Nights for 2009-2010 school year. So, please consider helping with this important part of the Life Teen program. I know that you will find it fun and a rewarding time with the teens and your fellow parishioners.

All Parents: Last year, we asked for a contribution from each family to pay for the meals. $20 a semester. $40 total for the

whole year. There are 22 Life Nights this year. That’s less than a $2 a meal. This is by donation only. If we do not have a high turn-out as we had last year, we will be forced to cut this part of the program. There simply is not enough money in our budget to provide meals for 100+ teens over the course of the year without your help. We want to be able to continue this tradition.

Checks can be made out to “St. Thomas the Apostle”. Please indicate monies to be directed to “Life Teen dinners”. You may turn this in to Deepa or the Religious Education office as soon as possible.

In the past years, parents who volunteered had to decide on a menu, purchase food, cook the meal and serve the food. This new process which began in 2008-2009 was much easier and the expense will be shared by all the parents. No teen will be turned away for either dinner or Life Teen.

Volunteer Instructions:

Maria Diaz will be calling you during the week prior to your assigned Sunday to let you know the meal you’ll be cooking and serving.

¥ Our food will be kept in one of three places: the smallest chest freezer (in the serving hall in front of the kitchen), the large refrigerator in the kitchen, or in a box in the corner of the kitchen (all items are marked).

¥ Pots and pans, cookie sheets etc. are kept in the wooden closet in the small room, in the back of the kitchen. This door may be locked, just look for James, one of our security men and he will be glad to open it for you.

¥ Serving spoons, knives, ladles etc are kept in the metal drawer behind the stove near the small hand washing sink.

¥ Pot holders are kept with the kitchen towels above the dish drying rack.

¥ The stove is simple to operate, open the oven door and dial to temperature desired. You should hear the stove’s pilot light ignite.

¥ Depending on what is on the menu will determine what you’ll need and how much cooking time to allow. We are keeping the dinners simple (heat and eat) so you need not be a gourmet’ chef.

Dinner needs to be ready to serve around 6:15.

¥ Plates, cups, plastic ware, napkins can be found in the Life Teen closet under the steps. Again, James can help you if the doors are locked. You will find a box/storage bin with paper products.

¥ We usually serve the teens through the serving doors in the kitchen. It is important that we serve up the food in order to control portion size to make sure there is enough food for everyone.

¥ Drink mixes and sodas can be found in the Life Teen closet as well. Drink mixes can be mixed in the large orange igloo coolers located above the sinks.

¥ The lunchroom tables in the serving hall can be used for drink service. Place ice in a large bowl and/or another igloo cooler. Pre-filling the cups before the teens come in helps the serving line to go smoother.

An exact meal plan will be provided for you. Sample meals include: salad bar, tacos, Salisbury steak, Chicken Sandwiches, Pulled Pork Sandwiches. Over the next month we will be putting our plans together. We will have a laminated sheet of the week’s rotation of meals with cooking instructions and serving suggestions available on Sunday, September 20th.

We always feed James our security man every Sunday. Make sure you feed yourself and the team of parents helping you. Save leftovers, (Zip lock baggies are in the Life Teen closet). Leftovers can be placed in the large refrigerator. We are responsible for cleaning the kitchen and serving area. The teens are in charge of cleaning the social hall.

Volunteering to help with this effort is easy: You can call Maria Diaz or Deepa to sign-up for meals or turn in the form attached with your desired meals to Deepa in the Life Teen office. You may also email Deepa at (dkingry@stthomastheapostle.org) .

Thank you for helping our Life Teen Program. If you have any questions or suggestions please contact Maria (770-896-1447) or Deepa (770-432-8579 x116).

Click here ------------------->

It will take you to the form where you can sign up for dinners!

We are in desperate NEED! This ministry is a lot of fun. You meet fellow parents! You can even sign-up in pairs, triplets, or quadruples. Each night we serve dinner, we need no more than 4 parents serving! Thank you for filling this need.