• Home
  • About
    • Meet Kristin
  • The Book
  • Podcast
  • Blog
    • Spiritual Direction
    • Turquoise Table Stories
    • Recipe Collection
    • 5-Day Meet Your Neighbors Challenge
    • Conversations
  • Spiritual Direction
    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
  • About
    • Meet Kristin
    • Meet the Team
  • Start Here
  • Join the Community
  • Register Your Table
  • The Book
  • Podcast
  • Blog
    • Turquoise Table Stories
    • Suppers for Sharing
    • Recipes
    • Conversations
  • Media
  • Speaking
    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter

The Turquoise Table

Kristin Schell

  • Start Here
  • Register Your Table
  • The Community

in Podcast· Season 2

S2E14: What Do You Need? A Conversation with Kim Muench

S2E14: What Do You Need? A Conversation with Kim Muench

What Do You Need? A simple question inspires The Turquoise Cart Program at Cook Children’s Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas.

In this episode of The Turquoise Table, host Kristin Schell speaks with Kim Muench, a volunteer program coordinator at Cook Children’s Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas. Kim began her Turquoise Table journey by placing her own Turquoise Table in her front yard. Unfortunately, this was met with resistance by her Homeowners Association. Despite Kim’s efforts to convince them otherwise, they would not allow her to keep her table in the front yard.

Still determined to create community in her neighborhood, Kim began a tradition of bringing her Turquoise Table from the back yard to the front yard one Friday night per month. Each month, between three and seven families join hers to play games on the street and socialize. Kim hopes that even more families will join them, and that her community will continue to grow.

Bringing out her Turquoise Table once a month wasn’t enough for Kim. She brought the idea of placing a table at Cook Children’s Hospital to her boss, who told her it wasn’t feasible. However, Kim and her boss came up with the idea of turquoise carts: rolling hospitality carts that go from room to room serving parents.

When children are in the hospital, parents often forget to take care of themselves. The children receive constant attention, but parents often lose themselves in the care of their children. Kim wanted to start The Turquoise Cart Project to serve and uplift these parents. To jumpstart the project, Kim asked all the parents who had children in the hospital: “what do you need?” This simple but powerful question rendered all the information she needed to pursue her idea of the turquoise carts.




Show Notes

Kim and her boss landed on three areas of service that the carts would provide: food, companionship, and the answering of questions. They found that most parents — especially those who were at the hospital for long periods of time — couldn’t leave the hospital room to go home and eat, and also couldn’t afford to eat in the hospital cafeteria every day. Kim decided that the carts would provide soup — the ultimate comfort food — to these exhausted parents.

She also wanted to find a way to provide quality companionship and realized that the only people who would be able to fully empathize with these parents were other parents who had been in patient care with their children before. Therefore, she found parents who had previously had children in the hospital to volunteer to push these carts. Kim currently has 12 core volunteers who serve soup, lend a listening ear, and answer any questions parents may have about hospital services. They also hand out turquoise journals to the parents who need an outlet for emotional release.

The program piloted from March to August of 2019 in three areas of the hospital, and now the carts serve eight areas of the hospital one day per month. Kim dreams of the turquoise carts increasing exponentially and being able to serve parents every day of the week but is patiently waiting for more parents to volunteer their time and energy. 

Kim is grateful for the impact the project has already made and encourages listeners to create their own Turquoise Table missions wherever they are. The Turquoise Table calling is not limited to a front yard picnic table. As Kim has proven, it can be manifested anywhere that there are people to be served and community to be created.

⭐️ Rate, review and subscribe to the podcast wherever you are listening! ⭐️



Links

Connect with Kristin:

  • Instagram
  • Facebook
  • The Turquoise Table

Connect with Kim Muench:

  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook

Podcast Discussion Guide

DOWNLOAD NOW


Episode Extras

S2E14: What Do You Need? A Conversation with Kim Muench
S2E14: What Do You Need? A Conversation with Kim Muench


Suppers for Sharing

Nordstrom Tomato Basil Soup recipe

Nordstrom Tomato Basil Soup



Conversation Starter

What do you need? What do the people around you need?


  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Email
  • Print

Filed Under: Podcast, Season 2

« S2E13: Love Where You Live with Shauna Pilgreen
January Suppers for Sharing and Conversation Starters »

Comments

  1. Tanya Trejo says

    at

    Hello, I would love to volunteer with this!!! I am a current Cook employee and parent of a 3 year old boy with chronic medical issues. We spent 92 days in the NICU at Cook Children’s and have had multiple admits. It would bring so much joy to my heart to help these parents with their needs and connect with them.

    • Kristin says

      at

      Tanya — I will connect you with Kim! What a gift your presence will be to the other parents at Cook Children’s. Blessings as you continue the journey with your son. He’s lucky to have you! xo

Meet Kristin

Welcome! I'm so glad you're here.

I'm on a mission to love my neighbors. I put an ordinary picnic table in my front yard, painted it turquoise and invited neighbors, friends, and even strangers to hang out and do life together at the Turquoise Table®.

I hope you'll join us!

About Kristin

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

The Book

Buy Now

The Podcast

The Turquoise Table Podcast with Kristin Schell

Listen Now

Join the Movement

  • Start Here
  • Join the Community
  • Register Your Table
  • Your Tables

Subscribe for Updates

Quick Links

  • Media
  • Contact
Hook ‘em Ellie! We’re so proud of you, our lif Hook ‘em Ellie! We’re so proud of you, our lifelong Longhorn! Congrats on graduation —we love you so much and are so very proud of you! 🧡🤘🏽🧡
Final kindergarten chapel to final senior year cha Final kindergarten chapel to final senior year chapel. So grateful for St Matthew’s and Hyde Park for loving and raising up our four. If you need me I’m the mama crying buckets for the entire month of May as we celebrate two milestone graduations.
This lil nugget is 18! Oh Sarah how we love you! H This lil nugget is 18! Oh Sarah how we love you! Happy Birthday baby girl 💕🎂🥳🎁🎉
Happiest of hours. Oyster shooters in stories. 🦪
Happy 25th Will! We love you so much and I’m so Happy 25th Will! We love you so much and I’m so proud of you. Never grow too old for Puff the Magic Dragon, Baby Beluga and I Don’t Want to Live on the Moon. 🎂🥳🥰
Happy Birthday to my favorite Valentine baby! 22 l Happy Birthday to my favorite Valentine baby! 22 looks good on YOU. I love you so @ellieeschell 💘🎂🎉
Follow on Instagram

Copyright ©2005-2023 Kristin Schell · Site by Erin Ulrich Creative