With the blessing of His Eminence Metropolitan Basilios, St Raphael’s Mission (SRM) has started a new initiative called ‘SRM Kids’ where once a month on a Saturday, SRM holds dessert-making classes for school-aged kids and teens who make desserts for the homeless which SRM then distributes to the homeless on a Monday night. These classes are capped at 20 kids and all supervisors have their Working with Children’s number. The dessert-making classes will be held at rotating locations to ensure as many kids as possible get the opportunity to attend at least one class. Each month, SRM will hold these classes at a different parish hall.

SRM Kids launched on Saturday 21 May at St Nicholas Parish hall and what a class it was! SRM was running around in the days prior to ensure that everything was ready for Saturday’s big event. On the day, the kids arrived eager and ready to start making their dessert. They were asked to choose a workstation where they found an SRM Kids apron, a hairnet as well as all the ingredients and cooking utensils needed to make the dessert of the day which was a no-bake Snicker’s slice (Yes, we do check for allergies at registration and this group had none!).

This recipe involved making 5 layers – a chocolate base, a marshmallow layer followed by a nut layer, a caramel layer and then a final chocolate layer; refrigerating the layers as we went. The kids enjoyed every minute especially making the marshmallow dough where they really got their hands dirty.

After the dessert was made and had set in the fridge, every child received 3 slices of their dessert to take home and taste their efforts while the rest was left in the freezer to set, further ready to be cut up and served to the homeless on Monday.

We want to thank St Nicholas Parish for allowing us to run the class in their hall as well as the kids themselves for putting in all their energy into making a great dessert for the homeless to eat. Keep an eye out for the future class registrations which are coming to a parish hall near you soon!

These will be advertised on the St Raphael’s Mission Facebook page as well as SRM’s Whatsapp Notification group. If you would like to be added to this group, please text 0404 323 868 to receive all SRM notifications in the future.