ROCHELLE — On Wednesday, Dec. 18, Rochelle Community Hospital hosted a Holiday Drive-Thru Dinner for anyone in need. 200 free dinners were served, RCH Marketing, Foundation & Organizational Development Manager Michelle LaPage said.
The menu included a choice of ham or turkey, mashed potatoes & gravy, vegetable medley, dinner roll and cheesecake, and was made by the RCH Food and Nutrition Department. RCH has now offered the dinner for four years after it started during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It's pretty much a well-oiled machine at this point and it comes together pretty easily,” LaPage said. “We reached the full 200 reservations a week before the deadline. So there's obviously a need out there in the community for it. In years past we hit the limit a day or two before the deadline. It's a lot of work for our dietary department, which is why we limit it. They can only put out so many dinners. They do a lot of hard work getting this all together for us.”
LaPage said RCH chooses to offer the dinner because it wants to help address food insecurity in the community. RCH also offered mobile food markets over the summer which saw “a lot of response.” LaPage said the need continues to be seen locally, especially due to The Kitchen Table recently making the decision to sell its building and reevaluate its offerings. The Kitchen Table was a pay-what-you-can community cafe that opened up for dinner to help those in need on designated days during the week.
“Seeing as much need as we have is a little disheartening,” LaPage said. “You wish that wasn't the case. As long as we're able to provide and help out, we want to do that. I think if we help to keep our community fed, it still comes full circle and helps people to be healthy, which is what we do here at RCH.”
LaPage thanked the RCH employees and volunteers that helped with the dinner on Dec. 18.
“Having our volunteers doing what they're doing today is part of the RCH culture,” LaPage said. “We always have people that step up, which is really great. And a lot of them have done it year after year, which is really nice. They enjoy it and we enjoy having them.”