Cookbook History

Here's a little background of the cookbook project: In December 2008, Tim Rigby, our wonderful minister of music, approached the United Methodist Women (UMW) with the idea of creating a St. Matthew's cookbook. In January, both UMW circles, Genesis Circle and Semi-Circle, agreed to take the cookbook on as a project which would raise funds to help offset the expenses associated with the renovation of Hart Hall, our church's multipurpose facility. That's when all the work began...

We set the deadline of April 1st to receive recipes from our congregation. After a couple of months of typing, proofing and taste-testing, we submitted more than 600 recipes to the printing company at the end of May. The finished cookbooks were delivered in mid-August, and we've been selling them ever since.

In the first two weeks, we sold enough cookbooks to recover the cost of printing and shipping. Now all the money that we make from cookbook sales goes directly toward retiring the Hart Hall debt.