On the way to St. John’s United Church of Christ, located between Faribault and Kenyon just off Minnesota State Highway 60 on Jacobs Avenue. That’s the church in the distance, on the left.
ALL ACROSS MINNESOTA, in church basements and fellowship halls, parishioners are plating pie and scooping vanilla ice cream. It’s the season of ice cream socials.
This simple sign on the door into the fellowship hall welcomes diners to the Ice Cream Social.
Sunday I attended the annual Ice Cream Social sponsored by the Youth Fellowship of St. John’s United Church of Christ, Wheeling Township, rural Faribault.
Lynn, left, and Kim, right, make sandwiches.
While the youth scooped ice cream, collected money, served beverages, cleared and set tables, the adults mostly manned the kitchen. Kim prepared ham sandwiches while Lynn made BBQs.
One volunteer was kept busy restocking pies and taking orders for specific pies.
Potato salad on ice, ready to go.
Cake was available, too, for those who preferred or wanted that sweet instead of/in addition to pie.
Others kept the pie counter full, washed dishes, restocked pickles and potato salad and more.
The fellowship hall/dining space.
Craig scurried around the dining area with a pot of coffee in one hand, a pitcher of water in the other.
The door to the Pie Room is labeled as such.
Banana cream pie inside a Pie Room fridge.
Elsie, hard at work in the Pie Room. She turns 90 in October.
And, in a narrow room off the kitchen, in a space officially dubbed “Pie Room,” 89-year-old Elsie plated pies.
I asked Elsie, “What’s the most popular pie?” She replied, “Pecan.”
I marvel at this petite life-long St. John’s member who, with arthritic hands, tirelessly cuts and plates pies at a fast pace and then slides the plates through a small window onto the kitchen counter. I hugged her upon my arrival and she welcomed me with a kind and gentle spirit and sweet smile. I love Elsie.
It’s all about the pie at the St. John’s Ice Cream Social. Just look at this lovely lemon meringue.
And I love this congregation of friendly and faithful people who minister through delicious homemade food. St. John’s also offers weekly soup and salad luncheons during Lent and each fall hosts a German Fest featuring superb Deutsche Essen.
Parishioners made 28 pies for the Ice Cream Social. The varieties included pumpkin, pineapple, peach, strawberry, cherry, custard and more.
If you are a fan of church meals, as I am, you likely have favorite ice cream socials or dinners. I’d like to hear where those are.
Pie cost $1.50 per slice. This is strawberry, likely Elsie’s as she brought strawberry pie.
Have you gotten to know the faithful who labor in the kitchen, who truly deserve hearty thanks for blessing us with their tasty homemade cooking and baking?
Thank you, St. John’s United Church of Christ, Wheeling Township, for the great fellowship and food.
© Copyright 2015 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
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