On Saturday September 24th, 2022, the Quaker Bakers of Greenwich Friends Meeting participated in the 50th Greenwich Artisans Faire at the historic Gibbons House on Ye Greate Street in Greenwich, Cumberland County. Through the sale of baked goods, tea and coffee as well as the Meeting’s signature cookbook (which combines Quaker family recipes and local lore), funds are raised annually for Greenwich Friends Community Outreach activities. The Faire draws hundreds of people to Greenwich and is a delightful opportunity to meet and greet friends and neighbors.
For more than twenty years Susan and Doug Dare and family have managed the Quaker Bakers, coordinating homemade provisions contributed by meeting members, and overseeing the festive table from “dawn until dusk.” As the Dare children grew up, the Quaker Bakers became for the family an opportunity for joyful community service, which, in turn, galvanized the grateful participation of Greenwich Friends.
This year, with the children now grown, the Dares graciously passed the torch back to our meeting members. Dedicated Friends and friends of Friends baked goodies, staffed the table, schlepped tables and chairs and enjoyed a financially successful and pleasant autumn day in the best of company. The Faire was quickly followed by Greenwich Friends’ annual lasagna supper. Funds raised from both events are used to support local community groups and endeavors which have included a soup kitchen as well as a preservation partnership with historic Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Springtown, a 19th century rural Black-founded community at the edge of Greenwich.
On Nov, 5th, Greenwich Friends Lower Meetinghouse, built in 1758, will be a stop on an Underground Railroad Bus Tour for teachers, sponsored by the Cumberland County Council of Education Associations. The tour is dedicated to spurring community investigations, inter-racial dialogue, emotional learning, and historic preservation of sites related to the legacy of the Underground Railroad along the Delaware Bayshore. Developed by Greenwich Friend, Lisa Stewart Garrison, working closely with church groups, academics, government agencies and community organizations, the tour incorporates story and song, allowing people of all backgrounds to examine the roots of mixed-race settlement and freedom seekers in Cumberland County. The project was developed with the support of Greenwich Friends Meeting and a grant from the Lyman Fund, a Quaker philanthropic group dedicated to enabling Friends to follow their deepest inward spiritual leadings.
- For information about obtaining a copy of Greenwich Friends cookbook, contact: greenwichfriends@gmail.com
- To add your name to the waiting list for the next public Underground Railroad freedom tour, contact: ccfreedomtours@earthlink.net
This article was originally published on southjerseyquakers.org
