Food disappearing from church fridge...

[FreeCellPenguin]

I'm a church secretary, and have gotten into the habit of taking a frozen diet dinner (Healthy Choice, South Beach, lean cuisine) to work to zap for my lunch.

A while back, Healthy Choice dinners were on sale for $1 each, and I had coupons, so I got about 15 dinners, took them to church, and put them in the freezer. Easy enough... head down to the kitchen every day at lunchtime, pull out a dinner and microwave it for lunch.

Well, in the last month, somebody has been helping themselves to my dinners... one or two a week. I finally pulled out the remaining dinners and brought them home, and I'll take in one each day.

Comparing notes with the church caretaker, we think that somebody is sneaking into the church after hours and helping themselves to food in the fridge and freezers. Leftover ice cream from social events, cakes purchased by Sunday School teachers to give to kids for their birthdays, cans of pop bought for a picnic, and more have all disappeared lately.

Makes me want to borrow somebody's spy camera and catch our phantom snacker!

[LoveBug]

That is awful! I think it's a good idea to get a spy camera.

[ANGSWIN]

You know, in the Jan Karon book, AT HOME IN MITFORD, food keeps disappearing from the church fridge. It turned out that that a criminal had been hiding from the police in the church attic and had been sneaking down to eat the food from the church kitchen. However, he became so moved by the pastor's sermon one Sunday that he climbs down from the attic in the middle of the church service and reveals himself to the congregation to be forgiven by them and by God.

Maybe you should check your attics!

[texasmomof3]

Maybe you could put a note on the fridge door and tell the fool filcher that as this is a church you would be more than happy to share with him if he would just ask. You could also ask him if there is anything else he might need that you could pick for him next time you go to the store. Perhaps your kindness and understanding will bring him forward and you can help him, stranger things have happened LOL!

[cksmom]

It seems as this is a common thing everywhere. I worked in an office and somebody was stealing food there too. We didn't have enough room to bring in stuff for every day, but it was the day of when we brought it in it would be gone.

Then at Disneyland when I worked there, there were so many people that it was really hard to monitor. Many of us had our lunch stolen at least once.

If they really needed the food more than me, fine. The cost of living is really high in California and I'm sure there were people could barely afford their rent on the Disney salary.

If they were just being lazy to buy their own food or cheap though then
There's nothing more irritating though then having only 30 minutes to eat, no cash on you and your lunch is gone.

[FreeCellPenguin]

I was telling my sister-in-law about this, and she said my brother has the same problem at his work. He will take in a brown-bag lunch, with his name on it, and leave it in the fridge... and somebody will take stuff out of the bag!

can you imagine taking somebody's lunch out of the fridge and checking it out to see what's worth eating?

If I knew somebody else had gone through my lunch bag, I probably wouldn't feel like eating the rest of the lunch!

Elaine

Our church here in our little community doesn't get locked up so there's was always somebody staying the night there. And there's always food missing so the ladies started making sure there was always enough for whatever was going on at the church and the nightly visitors.

[vivere]

I immediately thought of the Jan Karon book, too! There was a happy ending in that story, though. I hope you find out how to keep your food safe. It's incredible that someone would steal from a church.

[SabrinaMeadors]

That's hilarious. I'm sorry someone is eating your lunch...but hey look at it this way....maybe they were meant to be there! maybe someone is so hungry that God has given them a way to eat....through your frozen dinners! Haha, everything happens for a reason!

Sabrina

P.S. or maybe the pastor is just a hungry guy! haha.

[FreeCellPenguin]

We had a situation this week where some kids who attend the church were roller-blading in the parking lot and came inside to cool off... came up from the kitchen with a cold can of Pepsi. One of the pastors asked, "Where did you get that?" (Knowing that there were cases of pop in the church fridge for an upcoming meeting.)

Child says, "From the pop machine in the basement."

Busted! The pop machine only dispenses bottles of pop, and it's been empty for nearly two months now!

Child got a lecture about not helping oneself to food / beverages in the church fridge.