Members of the Sunflowers — from left, Susan Mitchell, Icer Litvin, Mary Jane D'Arville and Laurie Follmer — serve guests at The Doorways in October. (Photo courtesy Cynthia Bedell, the Sunflowers)
There’s nothing like home cooking, especially when you’re away from home.
After all, mashed potatoes out of a box just doesn’t cut it compared with the from-scratch version, lumps and all, comfort food in its purest form. Fresh family favorites such as homemade mashed potatoes and Dijon chicken are always on the menu whenever the Sunflowers set up shop to prepare and serve guests bimonthly at The Doorways, a nonprofit that provides lodging for families visiting Richmond for medical treatment.
“There’s nothing like fresh mashed potatoes,” says the Sunflowers’ Mary Jane D’Arville. “If that doesn’t say home, nothing does.”
The Doorways, formerly known as Hospital Hospitality House, provides low- to no-cost lodging to patients, their family members and loved ones who travel to Richmond for medical care at partner facilities including VCU Health, Sheltering Arms Hospital and the Veterans Administration Medical Center. Guests live 30 or more miles from the city. The 115-bed facility provides lodging and support to its guests, says Stacy Brinkley, president and CEO of The Doorways.
It serves children, adults and their family members, too. About 1,000 veterans are guests each year, with patients here for medical needs ranging from cancer treatment to joint replacement.
“It runs the gamut of everyone,” says Brinkley.
The nonprofit relies on its volunteers.
There are kitchens available to guests, but a number of groups, like the Sunflowers, come in to provide meals and companionship to the lodgers. It’s a welcome service: After spending all day at the hospital, “the last thing you want to worry about is dinner,” says Brinkley.
Mealtimes help build community where patients and family members get to know one another and provide mutual support, Brinkley says. The Doorways strives to have dinner prepared by a volunteer group, she says. Some groups prepare a meal, like the Sunflowers, while others may bring in pizza or sandwiches. Entertainment may also be provided, from bingo to music.
The Sunflowers made their first excursion to The Doorways in October, then returned on Dec. 5 with some Greek cuisine.
D’Arville, a musician and co-owner with her husband, David, of the Virginia Harp Center, is a driving force behind the Sunflowers. Her son, David, is a two-time cancer survivor, and volunteering is a way to express her gratitude. “I feel really happy and lucky,” she says, “and it’s important to kind of give back.”
She and other family members were constantly with her son while he was in treatment in Philadelphia. There’s no time for the regular family routine in such situations, and you miss those creature comforts like family meals.
“You just crave real food,” she says.
She performed at a meal at The Doorways last year, and came up with the idea that she could do more than play music, that she would like to help provide the food as well.
Trouble was, she had no experience on serving that many people. So, she contacted friends. They needed a moniker for the meal prep schedule, so they came up with Sunflowers, because they’re beautiful and great to eat, too.
Cynthia Bedell, who was a caterer, provided expertise in serving a crowd. “Food is just a comforting thing,” she says.
She had come to appreciate the powers of home-cooked-style food served to those facing a medical crisis after caring for a sick brother for two weeks in Colorado a few years ago. While there, she says, she ate a lot of sub sandwiches, or nothing at all.
Since then, she’s also helped out providing food at the McGuire Veterans Administration Medical Center’s polytrauma transitional care center. That’s where the mashed potatoes first came into play, with Bedell cooking up the fresh version for veterans who had previously been served powdered potatoes.
“They just go nuts over it,” she says.
Sunflowers harpist Mary Jane D'Arville
Mary Jane D'Arville with a guest of The Doorways (Photo courtesy Cynthia Bedell, the Sunflowers)
D’Arville’s son, also a musician, performed at the October meal, and she played the harp for Doorways guests on Wednesday.
On any given night, The Doorways may be a temporary home to 150 to 180 guests. It plays host to 11,000 visitors a year. The suggested donation is $15 a night for guests. No one is turned away if they can’t pay, says Brinkley. The Doorways is the second largest program of its kind in the United States.
About 9 or 10 percent of its operating expenses are covered through guest donations. Otherwise, The Doorways relies on its volunteers, its partners, grants, annual appeals and events. Its major fundraiser is Savor, a gourmet dining experience held in October, and it will stage a luncheon and a corporate paintball tournament in spring.
In addition to help with meals, volunteers man the front desk and help with special projects. About 12,000 volunteer hours are logged each year. “Volunteers in general really keep us going,” says Brinkley.
Doorways lodgers have access to a food pantry and can cook on their own, and it’s stocked with donations from some local grocers and others. But, as Bedell says, “who will want to thaw a 5-pound thing of chicken breasts when they are in that kind of environment?”
D’Arville also notes that a lot of the guests have limited access to transportation or simply have no time to shop.
The Sunflowers want to help stock The Doorways' food pantry with staples such as fresh eggs and milk. The friends are trying to raise $1,800 to allay costs for the food and supplies. They says it costs about $300 each time they prepare a meal.
They'll return to The Doorways with a meal in February, probably around Valentine’s Day, with an appropriate theme, says D’Arville. It’s a lot of work and organization, but she says it’s worth the effort. “It’s been great,” she says. “It’s been wonderful camaraderie.”
Bedell also enjoys interacting with the patients and their families, and enjoying the time with her Sunflower friends. “It’s such a nice group of people,” she says.
