Rev. James D. Conley, D.D., S.T.L. | Diocese of Lincoln website

On November 2, the Parish Council of Catholic Women (PCCW) at All Saints Parish in Holdrege organized a brunch to celebrate All Saints’ Day. The event followed Sunday Mass and was attended by about 100 people. Attendees enjoyed egg casseroles, cinnamon rolls, fruit salad, waffles, and sausage.

Sydnee Jauken, a co-chair for the event committee and a PCCW member for five years, said that hosting an annual meal is part of their tradition for the parish feast day. This year’s brunch raised over $500 through free-will offerings. The funds will be donated to the All Saints School library.

“We budget a certain amount that we give to the library every year,” Jauken said. “They need so much funding for new books. If people in the parish know that the money they’re donating is going to something that’s benefitting our church, people are a little more apt to stop by and eat and give a little bit.”

Jauken noted the community spirit among parishioners: “The main reason we can do big events like this is because we have so many people that pitch in to help,” she said.

This year’s celebration also featured a new initiative: selling “take and bake” meals as part of a ministry started six months ago by the PCCW. Charlotte Wirges, president of PCCW at All Saints Parish for three years, explained how this began after noticing administrative assistant Jannelle Pfeifer frequently prepared meals for those experiencing illness or other needs.

Wirges said, “We decided, ‘why don’t we get together as a group and make meals so that somebody could just take one home and bake it if they wanted a home cooked meal?’ The motivation was to try to be able to help other people out, and so it’s not just on one person making a meal for everybody all the time.”

Initially, small groups made meals in private kitchens before moving production into the parish kitchen for compliance with state regulations. At their most recent cooking session last month, six volunteers prepared about 65 meals which were frozen and sold during the brunch.

Jauken described how demand grew quickly: “We started off by just donating meals to moms that had babies recently, people that had surgery, people with sick family members…so we needed a way to offset the cost of making those meals that we donated.” She added: “We looked into selling a couple, and people were super interested in a nice, easy meal for their family, so it’s kind of exploded.”

The cooking sessions are collaborative; women work in pairs on different dishes such as shepherd’s pie (using recipes from the University of Nebraska website), barbecue meatballs (from school recipes), chicken spaghetti, and cheesy potatoes (from Pfeiffer). Each meal includes baking instructions emphasizing food safety.

Wirges highlighted both practical benefits and fellowship: “It’s more fellowship for us, talking to people and visiting,” she said.

Distribution relies on awareness within both church and school communities; secretaries know when someone may need assistance with meals. Jauken credited this network: “The support from our church on this whole deal has been pretty outstanding…The church community really helps us identify people who are in need of some assistance.”

Traditionally altar societies focus on tasks like providing candles or funeral lunches. Wirges sees this expanded ministry as offering more direct support: “Part of doing our meals is more of giving back and trying to do more fellowship with each other because we didn’t want to just be the funeral ladies,” she said.

Looking ahead, Wirges hopes families will participate by bringing ingredients so PCCW members can help them prepare freezer-ready meals before life events such as childbirth or surgeries. She expressed gratitude for volunteers’ willingness to help families during busy or difficult times.

“People have said that they really think it’s neat that we’re doing this,” Wirges said,“and they’ve found out we’re more involved with wanting to help others.”