Newsletter

Dear Members, Friends, Supporters,

The Board of Directors (BOD) became compelled to discontinue the OHCC’s Friday dinners due to the unavailability of sufficient resources of chefs and required assistants. During recent members’ meetings we did make announcements regarding this sore state of affairs, and we forecasted the possibility of such changes approaching, but our appeal, regrettably, did not produce the needed outcome. We intend to continue serving lunches for now, but please take note, that these are still understaffed, and our ability to sustain them is in jeopardy. Your voluntary help is always sought, even if we do not call for it constantly.

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For sake of clarity and transparency of the matter, we point out that the time and energy invested into preparing dinners has been about the same as what has been needed for lunches, while the number of consumers attending dinners has gradually decreased to less than half of those coming to lunches. Consequently, the net earnings of the House produced by dinners became insignificant, thereby rendering the volunteers’ efforts totally inefficient. This cannot possibly be upheld, unless there is a considerable workforce available willing to take turns on a regular basis. Up until now, each Friday Lunch and Dinner required 20-24 man-hours of volunteer work in the kitchen alone. The program change will reduce this to 12 hours, which still has to be staffed.

Of course, due to the cancellation of dinner service the related small income will be lost, and the BOD will plan by keeping this in mind.

As always, the House (OHCC) needs committed, tenacious and reoccurring volunteer help that it can rely on. Promises were many, participation remained to be desired. If 2 to 3 people would form a cooking team once a month, they could take care of one of the lunches or events per month.
The usage of the term volunteer work is somewhat misleading, since the BOD recognizes the help received with a slight pay. The contribution of BOD members to all events is always given without compensation.

What it all boils down to is the committed and organized collaboration of all those community members who intend to keep the House standing and well maintained, and treat it as a valuable and worthy heritage to be passed on to future generations.

We hope that this appeal will stir you into action, after all, it is a common cause. In the mean time, we have no alternative but to implement the following changes to the Friday opening hours:

12:00 – 15:00 lunch service
17:00 – 20:00 evening social, senior’s club, library hours, occasional events – no dinner is served

Take out orders will continue to be available. Only orders placed by 8:00 AM on the preceding days will be guaranteed, and they can be picked up during our opening hours on Fridays as specified above. Unpaid orders will be recorded and accounted for as debts owed to the OHCC.

Your still hopeful
Board of Directors of the OHCC