Your Story Matters Here: Susan Boddy

By: Tim Wesley

When it comes to loaves and fishes, does anyone – other than Jesus himself, of course – do it better than Dutilh’s Susan Boddy?

As the long-time leader of the church’s food ministry, known as – what else? – Loaves and Fishes, Susan takes care and feeding to a new level.

But did you know she doesn’t love to cook?

“Nope, not particularly,” she says with a laugh.

Well, she probably enjoys cooking at home for her family, right?

“They’re no fun to cook for,” she says with another laugh.  “Half of my family doesn’t eat much of anything. But I do get to use them as guinea pigs when I try out new recipes for the church.”

OK, if she doesn’t love to cook, why is Susan the church’s top-shelf chef?

“I enjoy the camaraderie of working with people that I’ve gotten to know over the years,” she says. “And I like being able to provide a relaxing and enjoyable atmosphere.”

Through four pastors and nearly two decades, Susan and her team have done just that – whether they’re cooking for groups of Dutilh members, for church-sponsored conferences or meetings, or for all-community events such as VBS.

Senior Pastor Tom Parkinson views the ministry as a key ingredient in Dutilh’s mix:  “Hospitality was central to the ministry of Jesus. How many times in the gospels do we find Jesus teaching and offering grace at a meal? You can’t follow Jesus and share His love without finding yourself in fellowship with others at meal tables. Susan’s ministry is essential to our church’s ability to extend hospitality and share the love of Christ. Her passion and dedication creates incredible opportunities for our church to create meaningful relationships through fellowship and to invite our community to our church.”

That five-star review is quite a testament for someone who wanted to be an astronaut but took a circuitous route and became a geologist instead.

Wait, what?

“I wanted to be an astronaut,” Susan says. “But this was before the internet so it was hard to find information on how to become one.  I remember asking a guy from NASA who had brought some moon rocks to display in my hometown, but he said he had no idea.  So I looked at joining the Air Force, but they said I was too short.  Then I decided to become a geology engineer, but found that I didn’t like the engineer part of it.  I changed my plan again and stayed with geology.”

A native of Traverse City, Mich., Susan graduated from Western Michigan University in 1994 and initially worked as a field geologist, primarily involved in removing underground storage tanks and overseeing cleanup activities.  Eventually, she joined Arcadis, a global, environmental consulting firm, where she worked until 2003, when she and her husband, Brad, moved to Cranberry Township from Michigan.

Susan found the work “fascinating.  Every day was a little different, with different clients and different projects.  I worked on a variety of job sites, basically managing and mitigating liabilities for companies using cutting edge technologies. We did a lot of work with manufactured gas plants and railroads, conducted baseline environmental assessments and studies. It was interesting to identify the relevant exposure routes and determine how to minimize each pathway. How we could help clients use a property without taking on the cost of cleaning up a problem created by someone else.”

As a woman working among mostly men, she encountered occasional challenges.

“Being recognized as an equal was sometimes a challenge,” she says. “With some of the men, it took a while for them to see that I knew what I was talking about.  When I was in charge of a job site, I had to learn how to interact with them, how to pick my battles. To be successful in consulting, you have to have a certain kind of personality. It taught me how to work with people that I don’t know or don’t get along with, how to manage budgets, and how to problem solve. Sometimes you might start off with a plan and sometimes that plan doesn’t work, so you pivot. When things come up at the eleventh hour, you have to figure out, now what?”

Although Susan left the work force to become a stay-at-home mom – Megan was born in 2004 and Jason in 2005 – she wanted to remain active outside the home, too.

“When Megan was in Kindergarten, Jason’s favorite game was Life, and we must have played at least twice a day,” she says. “I came to hate that game. I needed something to stretch my mind; I kind of missed work because it was how I identified myself.”

By then, the family had started to attend Dutilh, and she was about to find a new identity.  Then-Pastor Jay Langley wanted to host lunches for newcomers, and he needed someone to cook the meals. With no training and no affinity for cooking, Susan stepped up.

“He wanted cold cut sandwiches and soup for that first meal,” she says. “Well, it turns out that’s one of the most expensive meals you can make. We came in way over budget, because we had no idea how to determine how much food we needed. So the next time, I suggested something cheaper and easier, and here we are, almost 20 years later.”

Over the years, she’s had many opportunities to put her people and problem-solving skills to work.

“We have a lot of fun in the kitchen, but some things don’t go as smoothly as they could,” she says. “I once dropped a fresh-out-of-the-oven cheesecake on the floor, but it landed right-side up. We couldn’t serve it, but some of us working in the kitchen sampled it. You can’t let a good cheesecake go to waste.”

She has learned the best way to wash a lot of potatoes:  “In the dishwasher. It’s so much easier.”

She has developed many tools of the trade:  “When we make twice-baked potatoes, we use a drill to hollow them out. It’s the easiest way. I’m willing to try anything, and I like to be efficient.”

 Despite the team’s best efforts, challenges occur now and then, such as when people don’t RSVP for an event but show up anyway.

“We’re called Loaves and Fishes because sometimes we have to be able to feed more people than we were expecting,” Susan says. “One time for a funeral we had twice as many people as expected, so I ran over to Costco and grabbed everything I could get that didn’t need to be prepared. And sometimes when you’re making a recipe for the first time in bulk, you can’t measure some of the ingredients that way, so now and then you get a dud.”

Measuring the effectiveness of Dutilh’s kitchen ministry is easy.

“I think Dutilh has really come into its own,” Susan says. “When we started going there, I had heard we weren’t known as a friendly church in the community. But over the years we have come up with different ways to reach out and we have taken advantage of those opportunities when they come along. Now people come to Dutilh because they heard we’re welcoming and a good place to get involved. God has given us a direction and we have done a good job of following that. Food plays a role in that. Who doesn’t like to eat? There’s something to the atmosphere when you have a meal or snack together. It helps to break the ice.”

As she’s watched Dutilh’s presence in the community grow, Susan says her own faith has been strengthened, too.  She’s also expanded her role within the church, serving on the leadership board for two terms.

“My faith grows through the work that I’ve been able to do,” she says. “God has given me challenges, like the whole cooking thing, which isn’t something I ever saw myself doing. I wasn’t trained in any way and had to step out of my comfort zone to try it. God led me to this, not because I’m a good cook but because I was willing to try it. Over time, He’s provided the knowledge I’ve needed. Now we have plans for the future. Someday we hope to get a new kitchen so the ministry can expand more, like doing community meals. I see the Loaves and Fishes ministry team as checking all the mission boxes of the church: loving God, loving others and loving to serve.”

When it comes to serving, Susan is always looking for more volunteers, and she has a variety of ways you can lend a hand.

“Come in and give it a try,” she says. “I won’t handcuff you to the kitchen. You can set the tables, prepare centerpieces, just come in and keep us company while we cook. We also love people who like to clean. To be part of the team, you don’t have to know how to cook.”

And you don’t have to love cooking, either.