A recipe for Popeye’s Mac and Cheese compliments of Wayside Food Programs

Providing free food

For the past 30+ years, Wayside Food Programs has, in one way or another, been providing free food to people in need throughout Southern Maine.

Wayside’s hunger relief efforts include:

• 13 free weekly Community Meals
• Four Mobile Food Pantries
• Community Gardens
• Kids’ Healthy Snacks
• Dairy Buying Cooperative
• Wayside Garden
• Commodity Supplemental Food Program
• The Emergency Food Assistance Program
  
• Harvest for Hunger
• Hunters for the Hungry
  
• New England Enteral Exchange Distribution Solution
  

Food rescue

Through its Food Rescue Program, in 2017 Wayside distributed more than  900,000 pounds of rescued food to 55 partner agencies feeding households throughout Cumberland County. It salvages edible food from various sources — grocery stores, wholesalers, local farms, shipping companies, and other food establishments. There is nothing wrong with the food. It’s just not sellable for cosmetic reasons, packaging imperfections, or because there is a surplus.

Rather than going to waste, the rescued food goes to soup kitchens, food pantries, shelters, and free community meals. 1000 plus volunteers work in the warehouse, do pickups and deliveries and help prepare, set up and serve meals.

Community meals

Carly Milkowski helps coordinate the volunteers and also runs the Wayside Kitchen, which is located in the main office on Walton Street in Portland, Maine. No food is served there, but it’s where all the cooking is done for the community meals.

While most of the meals are small, there are several going on most days of the week and they often cook for as many as 100 to 250 people at a time.

Casseroles are great because they travel well, but Carly works with what she has on hand, so the menu varies. Because they have so many generous donors, she has access to “a lot of really fresh and healthy ingredients.”

One thing she enjoys is introducing people to foods they haven’t tried before. “We served a Thai curry a while ago and it was a huge hit,” she said. “I didn’t know how it would go over. Generally, people are open-minded about trying new foods.”

Carly tries to plan the menus in advance but has to be flexible because they often have no idea what they’ll have for ingredients. She and the kitchen volunteers joke that it sometimes feels like they’re on the cooking show The Iron Chef.  “For example,” she said, “one weekend we had a catering company drop off leftover pork from a pig roast. I wasn’t planning on that, but we ended up making pork chili. We also had a lot of tomatoes and peppers on hand.”

The chili was served at the Westbrook Community Center. Wayside partners with the Community Center and the Trinity Lutheran Church to put on a weekly meal that brings in at least 80 people. “The volunteer group that took that on made that happen,” says Carly. “They’ve been a great group to work with over the years. The weekly meals are about building community, where people are coming together to meet friends and neighbors. They also get healthy food and help with making ends meet if that’s what’s needed.”

All meals are designed to be supplemental, so the Westbrook meal is only once a week. Other sites on a weekly basis. not soup kitchen but are trying to have that weekly event where people are coming together, be part of their community, meet friends and neighbors but also get healthy food and help make ends meet if that’s what’s needed.

Comfort foods are a classic at the community meals. Carly was kind enough to share one of their more popular recipes. Macaroni and cheese, with a layer of spinach to give it a nutritional boost. They call it Popeye’s Mac & Cheese.

Popeye’s Mac and Cheese (Baked Macaroni and Cheese)

(Original recipe from Eating Well magazine)

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons plain, dry breadcrumbs
• 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
• quarter teaspoon paprika
• 1 16-ounce package frozen spinach
• 1 and 3/4 cups low-fat or skim milk, divided
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 cups shredded extra-sharp cheddar cheese
• 1 cup low-fat cottage cheese
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• quarter teaspoon salt
• Freshly ground pepper, to taste
• 8 ounces (2 cups)whole-wheat elbow macaroni or penne

 Directions

1. Put a large pot of water on to boil. Preheat oven to 450°F. Coat an 8-inch-square (2-quart) baking dish with cooking spray.
2. Mix breadcrumbs, oil and paprika in a small bowl. Place spinach in a fine-mesh strainer and press out excess moisture.
3. Heat 1 1/2 cups milk in a large heavy saucepan over medium-high heat until steaming. Whisk remaining 1/4 cup milk and flour in a small bowl until smooth; add to the hot milk and cook, whisking constantly, until the sauce simmers and thickens, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in Cheddar until melted. Stir in cottage cheese, nutmeg, salt and pepper.
4. Cook pasta for 4 minutes, or until not quite tender. (It will continue to cook during baking.) Drain and add to the cheese sauce; mix well. Spread half the pasta mixture in the prepared baking dish. Spoon the spinach on top. Top with the remaining pasta; sprinkle with the breadcrumb mixture.
5. Bake the casserole until bubbly and golden, 25 to 30 minutes.

Enjoy the recipe and to learn more about Wayside Food Programs, visit their website or Facebook page.