I still recall being seated next to Arlene Jawor as her guest in a small, divided banquet room at Avalon Manor in Hobart at the 4th Annual Meals on Wheels Dine with the Chefs charity dinner event.
For a quarter of a century, a team of hard-working, regional, notable chefs has donated, cooked and prepared the multi-course, incredible dinner spread for guests to graze for a great cause. The idea for an annual charity dinner gala gathering began in 2001, hatched by Jawor, then community relations director for Meals on Wheels of Northwest Indiana (who began as a volunteer in 1978), teamed with prior executive director Margot Clark, the latter who was in attendance at the 25th Annual dining event on March 1. It is she who founded the Meals on Wheels NWI with others in July 1977.
My, how this event has grown in every way throughout the decades. For several years, I served as the master of ceremonies at this event, which has always been hosted at Avalon Manor in Hobart.
This year, once again, there was a record capacity of more than 450 guests, generating a new record of money raised, with more than $200,000 raised in one afternoon for the nonprofit organization, using these funds to feed those in need.
It’s been a slow growth for returning to sizeable gains in totals as once enjoyed pre-pandemic, especially after COVID-19 cancelled/compromised this event in 2021. It returned later, with $75,000 raised with the event’s return in 2022, and then more than $110,000 at the 2023 event, which then increased to $130,000 in 2024. It was last year, in 2025, that a total of more than $178,000 set what was then a new record.
I’m told that this year’s $200,000 total can be compared to the equivalent of funding more than 21,000 meals to serve up to clients. Meals on Wheels NWI delivers more than 2,000 meals a day, including hot meals, cold snack suppers and frozen meals, to clients throughout the area, including in Starke, Porter, Lake, Newton, Jasper and Pulaski counties. A new addition in 2025 is processed menus that are now available for clients who require foods to be finely chopped or minced for feeding and/or digestive needs.
Last year’s event included the unveiling of the inaugural Margot Clark Award, a new annual honor bestowed upon an outstanding individual who has contributed to the efforts and success of the organization.
The first recipient was Centier Bank, applauded for being the employer visionary to be the first to allow employees to leave during the workday to have a comfortable window (while still on the pay clock) to deliver meals as volunteers for Meals on Wheels NWI. For this year, it was Jeff Strack of family grocery store fame who received the honor.
Based in Merrillville, Meals on Wheels NWI has been under new leadership for two years, with Ryan Elinkowski as CEO, succeeding Executive Director Sandra Noe, who had been with the organization for an incredible 37 years, guiding its expansion.
Of course, like many great ideas, even successful charity events must one day come to a close. At this month’s 25th silver anniversary dinner event, it was announced that there will not be a Meals on Wheels Dine with the Chefs spring event.
On the subject of anniversaries, for 2027, the organization will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the launch of Meals on Wheels of Northwest Indiana with a black-tie gala dinner event July 10 in the Stardust Event Center ballroom at Blue Chip Casino, Hotel and Resort in Michigan City, with more information available at www.mownwi.org or call 219-756-3663.
Chef Razvan Bancos of Gamba Ristorante of Merrillville provided the delicious fish course for this month’s Dine with the Chefs menu. A simple, but flavorful, blend of pasta with flaked salmon, tender asparagus bites and a rich cream sauce makes it ideal for Lenten menus. It features a combination of “maritati pasta,” which is a traditional pasta dish favored for Italian weddings because the alternating shapes of the pasta, long macaroni contrasted with smaller orecchiette noodles, symbolize “the union of husband and wife to bring prosperity to the new union.”
Columnist Philip Potempa has published four cookbooks and is a weekly radio host at WJOB 1230 AM. He can be reached at philpotempa@gmail.com or mail your questions: From the Farm, PO Box 68, San Pierre, Ind. 46374.
Maritati with Smoked Salmon and Asparagus
Makes four servings
Ingredients
1 pound pasta, orecchiette and ziti or maccheroni and casarecce
8 ounces smoked salmon
1 small handful green asparagus
3 sprigs fresh dill
1 cup plain breadcrumbs
1 lemon
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 tablespoons of olive oil
Sauce
3 tablespoons of all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons of butter
1 pound of vegetable scraps for broth (made from onions, celery, mushrooms, parsley, fennel, tomato, asparagus and dill stems) or 2 cups vegetable stock
Directions
Prepare the asparagus, cut 1 inch off of the bottom (reserve), then slice the stems into1/4- inch pieces, set aside. Cut off the bottom of the dill stems (reserve), then chop finely, set aside. Zest 1 lemon, reserve the zest.
Toast the breadcrumbs. Add the olive oil to a pan, heat the crushed garlic clove on low-medium heat for 3 minutes until it releases the flavor. Add the breadcrumbs and stir continuously, until they turn a caramel color. Take the pan off the heat and scrape the breadcrumbs into a bowl.
When they cooled down, add half of the dill, half of the lemon zest, and some freshly ground pepper and season with salt to taste.
To make the vegetable broth, cover the vegetables with 1-quart cold water, add 1 teaspoon of salt and bring to a boil. Halve the zested lemon and add to the pot. Cook for half an hour, then strain.
In a saucepan start making a roux: add the butter over a medium flame, let it melt, then add all the flour at once and whisk. Turn your heat to low and cook for 10 minutes, turning from time to time. The color should be golden and it should smell like toasted bread. Add your strained vegetable broth and stir. Bring the heat to medium-high, bring it to a boil. Turn heat down to low again, let it simmer. Season with salt and pepper.
Note: For a more intense depth of flavor, add 1 anchovy fillet and 1 bag of Earl Grey tea to your vegetables when making the broth.
In the meantime, bring a pot of water (4 quarts) to a boil to cook the pasta. Add 1 teaspoon of salt. When the water boils add the ziti, since it is the pasta that needs the longest cooking time. Give it a stir. After 4 minutes add the orecchiette and the asparagus, give it another stir. Cook for another 4 minutes and drain, reserving some pasta water.
Now combine the thickened vegetable broth, pasta and asparagus, the other half of fresh dill and lemon zest and give it a shake. If the sauce is too thick, add more pasta water. Taste and season with a little more salt if needed (not too much, more salt coming now), then add the crumbled or sliced smoked salmon and stir again.
Serve the pasta in bowls and top it with the flavorful breadcrumbs and a sprig of dill.
