On any given week, Ken Chadwick, director of food services for Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington, is a busy man as he and his team of cooks prepare 3,200 meals to be distributed to homeless shelters, soup kitchens and other outreach programs throughout the archdiocese.

But, since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and its negative impact on the economic well-being of many individuals and families, Chadwick and his team have been preparing an additional 2,000 to 4,000 meals to be distributed each week along with the hundreds of grocery boxes that Catholic Charities distributes to families in need.

“When we first started distributing the boxes (of food), I would be there (at the distribution site) for six or seven hours, and I saw people waiting in miles-long lines for hours to pick up food for their families,” Chadwick said. “I thought about them having to go home and start cooking after an exhausting day, and I figured why not provide a family a meal where they could just turn on their oven, reheat it and sit down with their family.”

Chadwick oversees the planning, preparation, packaging and delivering of the meals through Catholic Charities’ KitchenWork program. He said he and his staff follow strict health and safety guidelines as they work to feed so many people because “we understand that if any of us get sick, it would shut down everything.”

The staff works six days a week, from 6 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and provides meals for Catholic Charities’ Maria’s Meals services, and to clients at Anchor Mental Health in Washington, D.C., the Angel’s Watch Shelter in Charles County, the Spanish Catholic Center in Northwest Washington, and other locations.

“We have a very robust catering program – we provide meals to different homeless shelters and day shelters and different schools and aftercare programs and a couple of other locations,” he said. “We started working with clients who wanted to help because it was very busy.”

Through the KitchenWork program, participants take part in a 12- to 14-week program of learning and hands-on cooking. In addition to food preparation and other culinary skills, participants learn life skills, interviewing skills and “basically whatever else they need to help them overcome barriers to employment,” Chadwick said. Once clients complete the program, and pass the required food safety and handling tests, KitchenWork helps place them in food service jobs throughout the District.

The current pandemic put the KitchenWork vocational program on hold, and the temporary closing of restaurants and other food outlets affected the employment of many of the food service workers.

 “We have a kitchen, we have a great staff and we love to cook, so why not do this?” Chadwick said of the program offering prepared meals as well as groceries to those in need. “Luckily funds and donations allow us to do these things.”

He said his team prepares 3,200 meals per “regular” week, making deliveries seven days a week. Some weeks, the team prepares an additional 2,000 to 4,000 meals for distribution. “Feeding people is a need that will always be there, and this give me a sense of purpose,” Chadwick said. “We have always treated all of our clients and everybody we serve with dignity and respect. In these times now, doing that is more important than ever.”

A typical meal provided by his kitchen includes a protein, a starch and a vegetable for a family of four, plus dinner rolls and a dessert, usually brownies or cookies.

“We make comfort food, something other than a sandwich, something a little more robust,” Chadwick said. “We are trying to offer things that do not involve bread all the time – sandwiches are easy to make and easy to transport and easy to eat, but people get tired of that.”

Menus are determined by the availability of product. One week, for example, Chadwick and his staff prepared pasta with pesto sauce and garlic, with the basil and garlic coming from Mona Farms.

Located at Catholic Charities’ Susan Denison Mona Center in Temple Hills, Maryland, Mona Farms is an urban farm operated by the University of Maryland’s College of Agriculture. All vegetables, herbs and other produce grown at the farm are used in meals prepared by Catholic Charities. About 200 meals a week are also distributed there.

Other ingredients not produced at the farm – such as milk, meats and bread – come from local vendors and local small businesses. All food is prepared at the kitchens at St. Ann’s Center for Children, Youth and Families in Hyattsville, Maryland.

Because of the massive amount of meals that are prepared, packed and delivered, Chadwick said “logistics plays a big part in what we can and can’t do.”

“One of the most important things we have to do is plan how to cool and transport what we cook. It can’t be food that is too saucy or too milky because that is hard to transport,” he said. “We have a high skill level and we can prepare high-level food, but logistics play a part in what we actually prepare.”

Cooking thousands of meals each week also involves careful time management, Chadwick said.

“We cook in batches because we cool in batches,” he explained. “We start cooking for Friday distribution on Wednesday and everybody is doing a bit of everything.”

Chadwick’s interest in cooking traces back to his native Chile. “I’ve always had an interest in cooking as long as I can remember,” he said. “When I came to school in the United States, to pay for school I worked in a restaurant, and I’ve being doing it ever since.”

“I love Mediterranean food – Italian, French, anything from around the Mediterranean, but mostly Spanish cuisine. I love Spanish cuisine,” he said. And while that is his favorite food, that is not what he necessarily prepares for his clients.

“At work, you cook for your clients, not for you. You have to understand what the client is looking for. For example, we don’t prepare a lot of pork products because in general our clients don’t eat a lot of pork,” Chadwick said. “We’re making good homestyle food. At this time people are looking for comfort, and that is what we want to give them.”

He added that “people are very happy with what we do and we get a lot of ‘thank yous.’ We have a lot of returning clients, and we get great reviews.”

Prior to joining Catholic Charities, Chadwick worked at various restaurants in the United States and other countries. “Ultimately one of the main reasons I came to Catholic Charities is that regardless of what happens at work, at the end of the day, I always go to sleep just knowing I made a difference and that I am part of the solution, not the problem. That gives me a sense of peace,” he said. “I have not had another job where I can say that in more than 25 years of food service.”

The days he is onsite delivering the meals he and his staff have prepared “is one of the most rewarding, but saddest days for me,” Chadwick said.

“This whole situation with the pandemic is putting a strain on everybody. While it is very sad, I feel very lucky and proud that that I can help,” he said. “There is this dichotomy of feeling – I know we are helping our clients, but I wish I could do more. Sometimes it feels like you are holding back an avalanche with just a couple of hands.”

(To support Catholic Charities' outreach during the COVID-19 crisis, go to: https://secure2.convio.net/ccdc/site/Donation2;jsessionid=00000000.app20026a?df_id=2741&2741.donation=form1&mfc_pref=T&NONCE_TOKEN=9B9B24D1CB24893E688F482135DDA937 .)