WAYMART — “Cooking,” says Kathy Little, “is the easiest way to be with people, meet people, and spend time with people.  There’s nothing more giving than enjoying warm food together.”

Little, who runs Calvary United Methodist Church of Waymart’s Open Door Cafe, while having no formal training as a chef or cook, loves what she does, and says it is born out of “a true passion for it.”

Her training is serving church dinners of two to three hundred people, and now the cafe does 50 to 100 people a night, which is, comparatively, small potatoes.

She also says she “reads cookbooks the way some people read novels”.

Little is a native of Waymart, and believes in the old tradition of Sunday dinners that wind from the early hour into the late hours of the early afternoon.

Three and a half years ago, seeing a need for these kind of sit-down dinners in the community, the United Methodist Women (UMW) decided to do something about it.  They then opened their cafe doors, and their patronage has been growing ever since.

The cafe offers free meals to members of the community in need, be they elderly folks; single mothers who have little time to cook, let alone have sit-down dinners; or even poor underpaid journalists. 

UMW funds most of the project, and having just finished their summer brunch program in July, the Cafe looks forward to their Saturday dinners which will begin September 6th.

Little learned to love to cook from her mother, who she says, “was a fantastic cook and baker.  Back in those days, eating was what you did to be social, and I always enjoyed that.” 

She loves cooking and experimenting with cooking, trying to “compliment the natural tastes of the foods with just the right seasoning.”  She also says she “enjoy[s] the challenge of cooking with what little [they] have. It makes it fun trying to come up with something both low-cost and interesting.”

Her favorite food to cook is what is called a “pastie”, which is sort of a British version of the empanada, a beef stew wrapped into a pastry crust. On her own time she enjoys prime rib, and says she has perfected the recipe put forth by queen of southern cuisine, Paula Deen.

Her staff consists of seven “teams” that rotate each week, taking turns cooking the food and running the kitchen.  “It’s fun because each team gets to put their little spin on things,” she says.  She also gives alot of credit for the cafe to Donna Vinton, who coordinates the teams of volunteers, and Cathy Kapschull, who heads the UMW and without whom the Open Door Cafe would not be possible.

The newly remodeled Open Door Cafe, starting September 6th and running through the holidays, will be open every Saturday from 4 to 6:30 p.m.  Anyone interested in volunteering, or requesting information about the cafe should contact Kathy Little at 488-6885.

“We care about this community,” says Little, “and try to address as much as we can see.”