Alva Review-Courier -

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho (AP, posted Sept. 21, 2016) — Chicken breasts stuffed with spicy kale and nuts.

Baked catfish with lemon and white wine.

Fricassée de poulet and champignons with tarte au citron (fried chicken and mushrooms with lemon tart).

Although these gourmet dishes aren't typical of a food bank, ingredients and recipes for 10 meals like these are hand-prepared once a month by Dr. John Land, who gives them to those who utilize Christ the King Lutheran Church's Love Pantry.

Land was trained as a French classical chef and is happy to provide the ingredients so families can learn how simple it is to create fantastic food without depending on boxes and cans, reported the Coeur d'Alene Press (http://bit.ly/2d0jJfS). He purchases the ingredients himself to encourage the use of fresh food, demonstrate that eating cheaply and well is possible and to encourage families to eat together.

"I got fed up of going to Costco and buying processed food, so I went to Pastor Bob (Sundquist) and said, 'Look, if I actually do bags of fresh fruit and vegetables and meat and come up with some recipes, I'd rather do that,'" Land said. "It's a no-brainer, really ... the healthier you eat, the better you are, and the better the quality of your life is."

Land's suggested recipes are just one component of caring offered at Christ the King's Love Pantry, a food resource center that operates from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. each Thursday.

The moment people walk in, they're greeted by friendly volunteers and long tables covered with food items and colorful produce grown in the church's community garden. Guests are offered coffee, cookies, soup and whatever is on hand as they wait for volunteers to assemble food boxes they can request once a month. The pantry receives gifts of food from church members as well as Second Harvest Food Bank, Winco and the U.S. government.

Volunteer Darrell Miller of Coeur d'Alene carefully pulled items from pantry shelves as he filled boxes with cereal, canned chicken, rice, walnuts, beans and more.

"Just about everything you want to eat," he said with a smile. "Whatever you want, we've got it. We've even got fish if you want it."

The Love Pantry began more than 20 years ago and has expanded from a food source for those in need to a network of partnerships. Heritage Health's mobile clinic stops by every two weeks to provide emergency treatment and referrals, students from Lakes Magnet Middle School learn the value of helping others when they volunteer as "runners" and carry boxes out to cars, the Coeur d'Alene Quilters for Lutheran World Relief are on site twice a month with cozy quilts and the community garden gives families an opportunity to grow their own food and socialize.

"For me, it's the best day of my week because I love the people I work with," said volunteer Colleen Preston, who always makes a slow cooker of something tasty to share.

"Some people only have a microwave to cook in, or they just got out of jail and have forgotten how to cook," she said. "I include a recipe or something like that so they can figure out how to use some of the stuff in the box."

Colleen's husband, Jim, is a volunteer and the program coordinator.

"We always have a little something for people to eat," he said. "It's an outreach and we try to make it community involved."

Jim said the Love Pantry serves about 5,000 individuals every year. Leftover food is often donated to group homes in the neighborhood that house tenants who might be fresh out of incarceration or in transition and without the ability to buy or prepare groceries.

"They've got it tough. They've paid their debt, and now they're trying to get their lives back," he said. "We make a conscious effort because they are in the neighborhood and they're our neighbors. They're people. God loves them as much as he loves us, so we have to show that same love."

Each Love Pantry recipient fills out a form indicating income eligibility, which for one person is $1,293 per month, and gets his or her photo taken. Jim said the photos are so volunteers can get to know the people who come in.

"You know, just like 'Cheers,' we want to go somewhere where everyone knows our name," he said. "We talk about loving people who are at risk. If people know their names, listen to their stories, at least they're not walking the world by themselves."

Amy Brown of Coeur d'Alene visited the Love Pantry to receive a food box and fresh garden produce, which she said is amazing.

"A lot of times you come to these places and there's not fresh food," she said. "A lot of people who come here are renters who don't have room to grow their own vegetables, so the opportunity to have this stuff is really nice."

As a second-time Love Pantry recipient, Brown explained her family exists in the limbo between food stamp assistance and the ability to make ends meet.

"It's completely beneficial for our family because we don't qualify for food stamps," she said. "My husband has a job and we barely make (enough). To utilize a pantry like this is beneficial because I do have two small kids."

Christ the King associate pastor Rev. Jon Muhly said what it means to love your neighbors is to care for their whole well-being, not just a part of them.

"We want to walk alongside people in their journeys of life. We don't want to be the handout or the giver, we want to be equal and see how we can walk together," he said. "We're not a charity, we're wanting to be with people in their lives and get to know them and journey with them."