On November 6, 12 current and former ABC students made their way to the Ronald McDonald House near downtown Cincinnati to serve a meal to the residents. The Ronald McDonald House offers families who have children receiving care at an area hospital a place to stay, and is significantly less expensive than a hotel. While they request a small daily donation from their house guests to help defray the costs of operating the large facility, they never turn a family away due to inability to pay. Many of the daily meals are provided through the charity of church groups, social organizations and even the wives of Cincinnati Bengals NFL players.

During the summer the Ambassador Bible Center Alumni Association held a car wash in the parking lot of a local CVS store to fund the meal. With the assistance of several current ABC students, the association raised $420.53. Using those donations plus some previously raised funds, the ABC “chefs” created an Italian feast.

The Ronald McDonald House kitchen is set up so any group providing a meal can prepare it on the premises. With six kitchen stations, including a large commercial gas range, the house has ample room for up to fifteen people to work together to prepare a meal that will feed 125 guests.

Our Italian meal began with sun-dried tomato and basil bruschetta on toasted baguette with fresh mozzarella and a balsamic vinaigrette glaze. The main entrees were beef lasagna and spinach ravioli with an olive oil, parmesan and herb sauce. Garden salad, Caesar salad and buttery garlic bread rounded out the dinner. The grand finale was a cookie spread that included chocolate chip bars, white chocolate pecan blondies, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and Ghirardelli triple chocolate brownies. Milk was available in abundance to help wash down the goodies.

The meal was very well received, and the ABC serving crew heard many words of appreciation from residents and house volunteers alike. One gentleman, who volunteers there several times a month, proclaimed the dinner was one of the best tasting meals he had eaten at the house! The ABC Alumni Association plans to continue holding yearly car washes to sponsor future meals and sundae socials at the Cincinnati Ronald McDonald House.