Sixteen Years of Salads and Volunteering
“We really look forward to coming here,” Maureen Guscetti and Peggy Rector said almost simultaneously.
After 16 years of volunteering together, it’s no surprise that Guscetti and Rector are so in sync. Together with Delores Vanderah and Dana Benassi, they prepare a weekly meal at Family Service Center, an emergency shelter for single women and families. Collectively, they have become known as the “Salad Ladies.”
Their well-known potato salad is where the Salad Ladies get their nickname. They serve the dish every week. The ladies enjoy their nickname so much they even had hats embroidered with the name.
They began the Thursday morning routine in 1991 in downtown St. Paul, 10 years before Family Service Center moved to Maplewood. Benassi, the newest addition to the lunchtime volunteer group, has been volunteering with them every Thursday for two years.
The Salad Ladies plan their schedules around their unwavering commitment to their volunteer work. In an agency that relies on volunteers to serve most meals, their dedication is inspiring. Rector also serves in the kitchen at Catholic Charities’ Dorothy Day Center many Wednesdays.
As the Salad Ladies set out pans of their well-known potato salad, fruit, garlic bread, chicken and more, a staffperson said, “Wow, think of all the work that went into preparing that.”
Rector replied, “And all the love.”
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