The weather here in southeastern Pennsylvania the past couple of weeks has been beautiful, especially after our lingering winter and chilly start to Spring.  This time of year I love watching my yard go from a drab brown to I don’t know how many shades of green.  Every day they yard and woods look different.  Now everyone’s thoughts turn toward summer.  I have overheard moms starting to talk, with both relief and trepidation, about the approaching end of the school year.  Other folks are starting to plan summer vacations or daydream about heading to the beach.  And if you are like me, you are eagerly looking forward to the arrival of summer fruits and vegetables, as well as foods cooked on the grill.

Due to the popularity of the holiday treats and warm beverages drives, both with those who have donated and our very grateful clients, I have been wanting to hold a summer food drive.  While trying to figure out what extra food item(s) we should try to offer for the summer, it occurred to me that summer foods require their own special condiments.  Fresh garden salads need salad dressings.  Hot dogs and hamburgers need ketchup, mustard, and maybe relish.  Then there is BBQ, which is in a category all its own.  Even though we get the occasional condiment donation, the food pantry does not supply any of these condiments on a regular basis, so I decided summer condiments would be the perfect choice for my food drive.  Thanks to a recent food drive sponsored by one of our local civic organizations, our food pantry is currently well stocked with a variety of salad dressings.  We do not provide ribs or other types meat one would BBQ, so not all of our clients would have a need for BBQ sauce.  That leaves ketchup and mustard.  We regularly provide hamburger and hot dogs as a meat option, so these condiments seem like the perfect choice for a summertime food drive.

Starting June 1st I would like to be able to offer our clients the option to take home a bottle of ketchup and/or mustard.  We will need all size bottles of these condiments as we have households of one to nine and all sizes in between.  I would encourage you to stick to regular yellow mustard and plain tomato ketchup.  As with other food drives, I am happy to come and pick up any donations you would like to make.  In advance, I would like to say thank you to those making a donation–from me for helping to make this food drive possible and from our clients.  I am always humbled at the gratitude our clients express when they are offered these little extras.