Jim Pfeifer loading the oven (and likely burning himself).
Our House is more than a shelter. On the grounds of the old Veterans Hospital, it is a highly respected part of the Little Rock, Ark., community.
Our House provides the working homeless – individuals and families – with shelter, housing, job training, education, free childcare and summer youth programs, in order to equip them with the skills to be successful.
Temple B’nai Israel of Little Rock and Jewish Federation of Arkansas have long supported Our House through donations, Christmas dinners and special projects. Perhaps the most fun support of Our House has been the Temple Caring and Sharing Committee’s monthly dinner, which the committee plans, buys materials, cooks from scratch at the shelter and serves.
Our House staff contracts with area groups who provide meals for about 100 residents on one regularly assigned night each month. Rita Fagan, director Jewish Federation of Arkansas, and now Becky Marks have been our Chef de Cuisine and lead even the most clueless cooks among the group to produce meals, which bring rave reviews from diners.
Regular cooks, ranging from age 8 to 85, and our menu items have varied from Barbequed Brisket to Trudy Jacobson’s fresh-from-the-garden squash and onions. (We made a bet the latter wouldn’t go over, but diners were coming back for thirds!).
The most fun part of the project is that we don’t have to clean up! That’s the assigned job of the residents. Wouldn’t that be nice if we could avoid that every night in our own kitchens!
Trudy Jacobson cooking her famous fresh squash and onions, the shelter specialty.
This article and accompanying photos really captures the good vibes (and delicious smells) that radiant from the kitchen when the Temple is cooking at Our House. Maybe it’s my Jewish roots that always tempt me over to the shelter kitchen any time the Temple is cooking, but whatever it is, I can say that we are all SO thankful for what this group does to serve the homeless (and occasionally a few staff members like me).
Thanks for your many years of service…and good cooking!
Georgia Mjartan
Executive Director
Our House, Inc.