Intern's Perspective

Today’s guest blog post comes from Tatiana Nchotu, our new Communications Intern. She is a junior at Towson University, working towards degrees in Health Care Management (major), Business Administration and Spanish (minors).  She is originally from Cameroon, West Africa, and is passionate about issues related to HIV/AIDS and other life-threatening conditions.

Why Moveable Feast?

I first came across Moveable Feast during my search for internships. Skimming through Moveable Feast’s call for a Communications Intern, I captured the words “HIV/AIDS,” “cancer,” “life-threatening diseases” and “nutritious meals,” and got extremely excited. I went to the webpage, and after reading all I could, I fell in love with the mission. I have lost relatives and friends to HIV/AIDS and Cancer, so it really hit home. I always used to proclaim how much I wanted to do something about life threatening diseases. I realized that it’s one thing to talk about changing people’s lives, but it’s another thing to actually do something about it. Moveable Feast feeds people, fights disease, and fosters hope. Now, that’s talking the talk and walking the walk!

My Experiences So Far

During my first three weeks at Moveable Feast, I’ve been able to dive into all that we do here. I had the opportunity to volunteer in the kitchen. Collaborating with the cooks and volunteers to dish out and package each and every single meal made it so real. I also helped to plant seedlings and build the new compost bin in our garden. That had me reminiscing about the times I went to the farm in Africa. And of course, I’ve gotten my feet wet with writing a few blog posts. Seeing this entire process come to life is wonderful.  

Finding Inspiration

Prior to this internship, I didn’t know exactly where or how to narrow down my interests (career wise). However, at the moment, I know for sure that I’m interested in working towards the fight against life threatening diseases such as HIV/AIDS and cancer.

I’m honored to be able to take part in the “walking.”

Guest Blog: Moveable Feast's Recipe for Successful Volunteer Management

A few weeks ago, Volunteer Maryland’s latest crew of Americorps members (part of their Volunteer Maryland Coordinators program) spent a full day at Moveable Feast volunteering and thinking about the “best practices” of volunteer management. Barb Cooke, a VMC peer leader, was kind enough to share her blog post reflecting on the day and, more specifically, on the recipe for a successful volunteer program. You can find her full blog post here.

Here is how Moveable Feast makes it happen:

Ingredients:
~heartfelt passion
~a solid understanding of the community need and agency mission
~a handful of humility
~knowledge of staff/volunteer investment, policies and documentation
~heaping helping of flexibility
~effective recruitment, orientation/training, and recognition
~healthy sprinkling humor

 

Directions:
1) Have Volunteer Coordinator, Tom Patrick, share his passion and that of Moveable Feast with you. He began “helping out” over 20 years ago and continues to carry the mission of volunteer work at Moveable Feast forward.
2) Choose from several areas in which to commit your time. Our volunteers were divided between the kitchen, garden and office. However, it rained. . .and then it poured. No worries, Tom was quite masterful at finding alternative tasks crucial to the program. Because Moveable Feast’s volunteer procedures and position descriptions are clear and well-defined, the garden group easily took on other responsibilities including, follow-up phone calls and writing Thank You letters to volunteers.
3) Tom was adept at weaving our service that day into the rich tapestry of Moveable Feast history. We also received training in required procedures, were invited (recruited) to return for upcoming events and, walked out feeling like we had made a real difference.
4) If you’re interested in “tasting” Moveable Feast’s recipe for volunteering first hand, contact Tom and add yourself; groups are welcome!

At the conclusion of our Service Day, the Volunteer Maryland Peer Leaders, Joy and I, facilitated small group discussions with the Volunteer Maryland Coordinators reflecting on what we had learned at Moveable Feast. The reflections acknowledged the importance of including flexibility, humor and structure in a successful volunteer program. Each group prepared a demonstration that symbolized their experience. The demonstrations included group spoken word, ingredients to build a volunteer cupcake (Did you wonder where I got the idea for this post?) and a family convincing reluctant teenagers to get involved in service. This opportunity gave the Volunteer Maryland Coordinators personal practice in a successful volunteer experience. Now, they are putting this process into practice as they recruit and manage volunteer programs at their Service Sites.

  

Guest Blog by Minxeat's Kathy Patterson: A Restaurant Review of Clementine

One of the Baltimore region's most popular food/restaurant reviewers is guest blogging today. Kathy, who is the author of the minxeats blog, reviews her Dining Out For Life experience at Clementine. 

Minxeats features original recipes, thoughts on area restaurants, and other food-related topics. Check it out! 

I had heard from several sources that Clementine was "awesome," so I was happy to see that the restaurant was not only participating in Dining Out for Life, but it was also one of the handful that were offering 50% of the night's proceeds to Moveable Feast.

Couldn't be a more perfect reason to check it out.

Clementine, located on Harford Road in Hamilton, is an entirely charming restaurant. The decor is rustic, with sturdy wooden tables and chairs, window lamps made from colanders, and a hodgepodge of art-for-sale decorating the walls in the original dining room. The music playing that evening was country with a Texas twang. And our waitress was an absolute doll.

The eclectic beer and cocktail menu took longer to peruse than the food menu. Eventually I settled on a Tokyo Iced Tea - a mild-tasting but potentially lethal concoction containing mint tea and sake, among other things. Mr Minx had a draft Chimay, which honestly was pretty dull for a Belgian beer that cost nearly $8.

As for food, we knew we wanted to try both charcuterie plates - meat and seafood.

The meat version held a slab of Danish fontina, a chubby sausage of Duroc pork seasoned with black mustard seed, fennel, and pear liqueur, a blob of chicken liver paté with thyme, rye whiskey, and honey, and a pile of house-made bread & butter pickles.

The paté didn't look like much, but boy howdy was it good! (And they sell it by the pound!) The whiskey and honey lent a subtle sweetness to the chicken livers, which were smooth and rich and simply wonderful. The juicy pork sausage was similarly edged with sweetness. The cheese was fine, but I would have preferred more meaty goodness.

The seafood plate included pickled shrimp, smoked trout salad with remoulade, and a shrimp paté, along with more pickles. I adore smoked trout, which is what sold the dish. Trout isn't as oily as its cousin salmon, and I find that smoking it provides a more gentle flavor. This salad was lemony perfection. I expected the shrimp to be more, well, pickle-y, but was instead pleasantly surprised by an intense citrus flavor. And while I wasn't crazy about the runny texture of the shrimp paté, the nuggets of crustacean had a nice iodine quality.

The bread & butter pickles were a nice tangy counterpoint to the rich items of the meat plate, but were unnecessary on the seafood version. But really, the only thing I would change is the bread. Charcuterie this good needs something with a bit more character and better crust. And maybe cut into less-dainty slices.

(Yes, I know, I've become a breadist like my father. Don't remind me.)

 On to our entrées.

Mr Minx, feeling somewhat meat-and-potatoes deprived recently, found the description of meatloaf with smoked gouda mashed potatoes and a red eye mushroom gravy enticing. Apparently not only to read: he devoured the whole thing, citing the herbal quality of the meat as one of its best qualities. For me, however, there was probably a bit too much thyme. Loved the super-creamy mash and the homey gravy, though.

Unlike my husband, I'm always more interested in ordering things that are more odd or interesting rather than soul-satisfying and am almost always content with eating an appetizer as my main course. Although I was tempted by the duck entrée, I instead ordered the smoked duck nachos with chihuahua cheese, cilantro sour cream, and pico de gallo appetizer. And I'm very glad I did, as these were some of the best nachos I've ever eaten - freshly fried chips, a generous quantity of tender house-smoked meat, and a gorgeous cilantro-and-lime cream. Not only gorgeous to look at, either. (My notes said the cream was "killer." God, I love cilantro.)

The portion was huge, btw, definitely share-able if ordered as an appetizer. For sure they don't skimp on portions at Clementine, as our desserts (made by the owner's mom) were oversized as well.

Mr. Minx's yellow cake with chocolate frosting and peanut butter filling was like a home-made version of one of the treats of our youth: a Tastykake Peanut Butter Kandy Kake. But ten times better, of course.

If I'm going to eat cake, 9 times out of 10 it's going to be chocolate, but a big white cake with a halo of grated coconut called to me from its very visible spot in the pastry case. It was possibly the best yellow cake I have ever eaten - moist and somewhat dense, with fluffy seven-minute frosting and the perfect amount of coconut. I ate as much of it as I could before I had to admit defeat and a full tummy.

In conclusion: we enjoyed everything immensely. I'd go back again for all of it, especially the charcuterie and cake. And that cilantro cream. I'm thinking that Clementine might just become one of our regular haunts.

Clementine
5402 Harford Rd
Baltimore, MD 21214-2215
(410) 444-1497

Thanks again to Kathy and Minxeats for guest blogging today! Dining Out For Life was held this year on September 23rd. Clementine was one of our best performing restaurants. In total we raised over $70,000 this year to feed our clients.