Excerpts from the Annual Report 2019. For a full copy of the 2019 report, parishioners in good standing may request a copy from the Church Office.

2019 was a good year for the Lobster Lunch and sales were up over the previous year. With the 4th on Thursday it was another somewhat challenging midweek holiday this year. The 4th of July Holiday started the weekend off well with lines to Washington Street much of the afternoon. The weather was especially hot and guests gratefully received the water we passed out along the line. The weekend crowds were less than the 4th, as expected In the end, there was 15 lbs of lobster meat left which, along with enough fixings to feed lunch to many, was donated to Lifebridge in Salem where it was very gratefully received.

We added new gourmet cookies, the brainchild of Randolph Stark, which were a great addition to the lunch. We also added Atomic Coffee cold brew nitro to our beverage offerings. The 2019 lunch benefited from great publicity in the Chamber of Commerce newsletter, flyers posted around town, inclusion in the Festival of Art program book, and social media promotion. The Lobster lunch was also posted in the calendars on boston.com, patch.com, among several others. The Lobster Lunch is a Marblehead tradition that many from town and elsewhere plan their weekends around.

The Lobster Lunch supports many charities and is a key component supporting St. Michael’s outreach work. Half of the 2019 net proceeds went to the church and school of St. Thomas in Archaie, Haiti, and the other half was divided up among local charities:

• My Brother’s Table

• Esperanza Academy

• Friends of Marblehead’s Abandoned Animals (Marblehead Animal Shelter)

• Marblehead Counseling Center

• Lifebridge

• Marblehead Food Pantry

• Family Promise of the North Shore

• Healing Abuse Working for Change (HAWC)

• Kids in Community

A lobster lunch cannot be successful without a lot of planning and hard work by its Committee personnel. Many, many thanks go to the following: Frances and Ed Nilsson, Octavia Moniz, Linda Smidt, Bill and Barbara Miller, and Blair Schmeig. The Lobster Lunch would not happen without dedicated help from the parishioners; big thank-you to all who volunteered their time to help make it such a big success.

In addition, many thanks to the following:

• To the church youth, who helped with setting up the tables and chairs

• Old Neighborhood who once again donated 100 pounds of hot dogs (thank you Greg Bates for getting this done for us every year)

• Black Earth Composting for the use of the composting barrels and the pickup of our garbage. This year, we composed all food-based waste.

• Those that made donations towards the tent, lobster meat, and luncheon in general.

• Joe Oliveira, Church Treasurer, for all his hard work on the money end of things.

• Doug Major for his annual organ concert.

• The Historic Church Committee for their open house presentations.

• Bill and Barbara Miller for negotiating and procuring our lobster meat each year from Patriot Seafood. This year was especially challenging due to a shortage of lobster.

• Thank you to David Winder for arranging the tent and all-town permitting for it.

• Randolph Stark and his sister, Dr. Caroline Stark, for making and baking all of the gourmet cookies.

• Thank you to Senior Warden, Sue Cool, for being there all weekend!

One of this year’s challenges was staffing. We were light on volunteers, especially on the last day which was a Sunday. We will be looking into ways to beef up our staffing for 2020.

We look forward to 2020’s Lobster Lunch and hope that all can give – whether volunteering time, or sponsoring the luncheon – to make it another successful year!

Respectfully submitte,

Ellie Doyle
Chair