{"id":316047,"date":"2026-10-28T12:58:32","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T12:58:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/316047\/"},"modified":"2026-10-28T12:58:32","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T12:58:32","slug":"rectory-set-cook-diocese-of-scranton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/316047\/","title":{"rendered":"Rectory, Set, Cook! \u2013 Diocese of Scranton"},"content":{"rendered":"

GOOD NEWS! The fifth edition of Rectory, Set, Cook! is now underway. You can vote for your favorite recipe, video or pastor chef through March 27, 2026. Click here to go directly to the Rectory, Set, Cook! webpage.<\/a><\/p>\n

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In its fourth year, Rectory, Set, Cook! set a new record for donations to fund anti-hunger and anti-homelessness initiatives<\/p>\n

Rectory, Set, Cook! IV, an online fundraising event featuring priests from across the Diocese of Scranton, set a record for money raised this year \u2013 bringing in $229,429 from 1,907 donors at the close of the competition.<\/p>\n

The online contest ran for six weeks during Lent, beginning on Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2024, and concluding on Tuesday, March 26, 2024.<\/p>\n

\"\"In all, 37 priests participated in Rectory, Set, Cook! III, filming a total of 30 videos, which were made available for the public to vote for their favorite recipe or video. Many of the priests were joined by guest \u2018sous chefs\u2019 which included Catholic school students, faith formation students, parishioners and even three media personalities.<\/p>\n

Money raised from this year\u2019s Rectory, Set, Cook! event will benefit anti-hunger and anti-homelessness initiatives of Catholic Social Services of the Diocese of Scranton, while also supporting the parishes of the participating pastor chefs.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cYear after year, people tell us how much they love to see their priest participating in this contest. Whether the pastor knows his way around the kitchen or not, people say they love to see them cooking and raising money for charity at the same time,\u201d Sandra Snyder, Diocesan Director of Foundation Relations and Special Events, said. \u201cThis year was particularly fun and exciting as we crossed the $200,000 milestone for the first time!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"In its inaugural year, 2022, Rectory, Set, Cook! brought in more than $171,000. In 2023, the online culinary competition raised a total of $197,000.<\/p>\n

A number of community businesses help to sponsor Rectory, Set, Cook!, including the program\u2019s presenting sponsor, Hawk Family Foundation. All sponsorship dollars raised stay directly with Catholic Social Services to benefit area kitchens, food and clothing pantries, and emergency shelters.<\/p>\n

\"\"Throughout the 2023 calendar year, Catholic Social Services responded to an increasing need in the community.<\/p>\n

For example, Saint Vincent de Paul Kitchen in Wilkes-Barre served 107,832 meals, the Catholic Social Services food pantry in Carbondale served 22,617 individuals, and the Saint Joseph Food Pantry in Hazleton served 5,369 individuals.<\/p>\n

The agency plans to use the money raised from Rectory, Set, Cook! to continue\"\"<\/a> to\u00a0respond to the community\u2019s hunger needs \u2013 as well as to help create a new permanent home for Mother Teresa\u2019s Haven, the emergency shelter for the city of Wilkes-Barre.<\/p>\n

Recipes featured in Rectory, Set, Cook! III are in a cookbook which is now available for purchase.\u00a0 Rectory, Set, Cook! Cookbooks will be shipped directly to a person\u2019s home.\u00a0 Each cookbook costs $15 and can be ordered by clicking HERE<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\"\"We invite you to check out videos of all three years of Rectory, Set, Cook! by clicking on one of the links listed below. Once again, we\u2019d like to thank all our generous donors who helped us fight hunger and homelessness in 2024.<\/p>\n

To donate to the 2026 campaign, click this link<\/a><\/p>\n

Rectory, Set, Cook! 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

Rectory, Set, Cook! 2024<\/a><\/p>\n

Rectory, Set, Cook! 2023<\/a><\/p>\n

Rectory, Set, Cook! 2022<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GOOD NEWS! The fifth edition of Rectory, Set, Cook! is now underway. You can vote for your favorite…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":316048,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":["post-316047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}