Katie’s Kitchen volunteer gets Soroptimist’s Ruby Award
After starting out working in the kitchen preparing meals for people who are served by Katie’s Kitchen every Thursday, Justine Brown now manages the operation, and raises funds by helping to organize the kitchen’s annual spring gala.
Her work with Katie’s Kitchen has earned her this year’s Soroptimist International of Butler County’s Ruby Award, but also praise from her co-volunteers and “sisters in Christ” in the kitchen.
“It is totally deserved,” said Loretta Bachman, who has volunteered at Katie's Kitchen since it opened in 1994. “She’s a ruby. She’s a precious stone.”
Brown first got involved with Katie’s Kitchen, operated out of St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church on Butler’s West Jefferson Street, in 2019, after many years of working in kitchens, and even teaching cooking. She said it isn’t the awards or recognition that keeps her in the kitchen — it’s the ability to fight local food insecurity and to help hundreds of people avoid going hungry each week.
“What keeps me doing it is knowing we are improving the quality of their life,” Brown said. “I have great volunteers who are absolutely wonderful and are really the core of what we do.”
The Soroptimist International of Butler County group has given the Ruby Award for years, now annually at its Spring Fling event, scheduled for March 29. The group, which champions disadvantaged women and girls, also recognizes and celebrates accomplishments and service of women in the community.
Marianne Hill, president of county chapter, said Soroptimist members bring nominees for the community Ruby Award to a group meeting, and share what makes them exceptional with the rest of the members. According to Hill, the members then have a silent vote selecting that year’s award winner.
Hill said members were impressed with the extent of Brown’s involvement in the community. And even with her busy schedule, Brown is responsive and personable with other people, Hill said.
“With Justine, she is on a gazillion different boards and organizations she volunteers with,” Hill said. “Her making herself available to so many organizations and helping out so many venues in Butler which actually helps a lot of the people who live in Butler.”
A former Butler High School teacher, Brown is a Master Gardener and a choir member at All Saints Parish, and she helps with holiday decorations at a local senior facility and coordinates the funeral and event luncheons fort St. Conrad Roman Catholic Church. She also has helped maintain or decorate the Yugoslav Nationality Room for the Christmas season at the University of Pittsburgh’s Cathedral of Learning for decades.
Winners of the Ruby Award in recent years include Lynn McKinnis, who brought the Remote Area Medical clinic to Butler last year, and Audray Muscatello Yost, the leader of the Golden Tornado Scholastic Foundation Kids’ Weekend Backpack Program.
The Spring Fling will be March 29 at the Butler Country Club, where the Soroptimists will officially recognize Brown with the community Ruby Award, and also present a club Ruby Award to honor a fellow Soroptimist for her efforts assisting the club.
An event highlight is the annual presentation of two Live Your Dream scholarships to women, who are overcoming conditions such as homelessness or abuse, to improve their lives and those of their families through education. Recipients apply each fall through an online portal. Hill said a grant the Soroptimists received from the Friends of Bantam Jeep Foundation this year will help boost the awards; this year the group will present awards for $2,000 and $1,500.
Hill said the event itself is a major fundraiser for the Soroptimists.
“We have vendors, a basket raffle, a 50/50 a lottery hat; we have a buy-a-prize and a date night with a book this year,” she said. “Everybody has a great time, it’s such a great event. That’s how we do multiple projects a week and how we do these scholarships.”
Among other projects, Soroptimist members make blankets for cancer patients, conduct bingo at a senior facility and support women in need through its Place to Lay My Head committee.
When Brown first started volunteering at Katie’s Kitchen in 2019, it served an average of 80 people a week. Now, that number has risen to up to 400 people, which has called for an increase in volunteers as well.
Leading kitchens has always been Brown’s wheelhouse, and her background in that work is what has made her an ideal manager for the volunteer-based kitchen.
“I organize the volunteers, I make sure we have enough volunteers for the cooking and packing,” Brown said. “I do all the ordering of the foods that we might need. We help set up the menu for the week.”
Bachman said Brown has helped organize volunteers, from the Lions Club to Girl Scout troops. Keeping the kitchen staffed and stocked with food is the key to ensuring everyone in need gets a meal, according to the longtime volunteer.
“She’s gotten so many people to volunteer,” Bachman said. “It takes this whole village. We’re all like sisters in Christ and gentlemen in Christ.”
On Thursday afternoon, Jan. 30, Brown oversaw a little over a dozen volunteers, who were packing meals into boxes to be given out at that evening’s distribution. Some volunteers worked in the kitchen, making bread pudding and pasta for the packs, and others prepared bananas and packed salad dressing in the cafeteria area of the church.
Brown said Katie’s Kitchen receives some money from the church, but also runs on donations from the community, and restaurants like Panera, the Butler Farm Market and the Atrium. On the other days of the week, Brown and her husband are traveling to these restaurants to pick up food donations, so they can be put in the meal packs given out by Katie’s Kitchen.
Raylene Jindra is another volunteer at Katie's Kitchen who has been there since it opened in 1994. She said Brown’s skills in organization makes her a great manager for the place.
“She’s fantastic,” Jindra said. “You need somebody to keep us all together. She makes sure we have meals for everybody.”
At 5 p.m., the volunteers transition from packing to distributing, giving people the packed meals at the church’s entrance. Brown said the kitchen does not ask questions of the meal recipients, aside from their names. She said many people in Butler face food insecurity, so knowing their names is a good way to make a connection in case they need further assistance.
“It really puts a face with the name and you get to know them as neighbors and not just a number, not just a meal that we’re handing them,” Brown said. “We have regulars that come consistently and we know how many they will get because they help their neighbors. Knowing their names and being able to call them has really been a blessing.”
Although Brown is the one being recognized with the Soroptimist Ruby Award, she praised the staff of Katie’s Kitchen, who are the ones who keep the place successful.
“I couldn’t do any of this stuff without them,” Brown said. “We’re like a family. We all support each other here and in the kitchen and outside the kitchen.”
Tickets to the Soroptimists’ Spring Fling are $45 each, and can be ordered by calling Hill at 724-321-1309. All tickets have to be purchased in advance.
Soroptimists Spring Fling
WHAT: Spring Fling luncheon and basket raffle
WHEN: March 29, doors open at 10 a.m., with lunch at noon
WHERE: Butler Country Club, 310 Country Club Road, Penn Township
TICKETS: $45, available presale only. Call 724-321-1309
BENEFITS: Projects of Soroptimist International of Butler County
OF NOTE: Those who bring a feminine hygiene product for Isaiah 117 House will receive a ticket toward a special raffle.
