I Was Thinking... Controlled Chaos

Have you ever tried to prepare a meal for a thousand people? I’m not talking about cooking burgers and hotdogs over a grill at a three-day festival. I’m talking about a sit-down meal with tablecloths, dishes, silverware, and two main entrees with several side dishes and you do it all in one day. That was the traditional lutefisk dinner served at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Kasson several weeks ago.
For over 50 years, the church put on this meal of lutefisk, meatballs, potatoes, rutabagas, coleslaw, cranberry relish, lefse, and Norwegian baked goods. But because of COVID, there was a gap of several years. So earlier this year, a group polled the congregation to see if there was interest in reviving this fall festival of food. Some were concerned that there wouldn’t be enough people in the church to do the work. Others wondered if there were still enough people that would show up for the meal. They finally decided to proceed on a somewhat smaller scale. That is when the planning really started to happen.