Dustin Hoffman Donates Kitchen Equipment to Pennsylvania Church

Pocono Grace Head Elder Don Baker is pointing to two of the two pieces of kitchen equipment donated by Dustin Hoffman. Photograph courtesy Pennsylvania Conference.

Actor Dustin Hoffman recently gave the Pocono Grace Church a gift worth more than $10,000.  What was it? Read more to find out.

Story by the Pennsylvania Conference Communication staff with additional reporting by Andrew McChensney 

Actor Dustin Hoffman recently donated three large pieces of commercial kitchen equipment from his Central Park, New York City, condo to the Pennsylvania Conference’s Pocono Grace church in East Stroudsburg.

Hoffman donated the equipment because of his family’s warm relationship with Lucy Ascencio, a Pocono Grace church member who works for him as a housekeeper and cook, said Don Baker, the church’s head elder, according to an Adventist Review article.

The Hoffmans were gutting the entire kitchen and donated their refrigerator and freezer, as well as their range, he said. The church members only needed to arrange for a truck and crew to pick up the items.

“Needless to say, we were very excited about the opportunity to have such a valuable gift for our kitchen,” Baker said in that same article.

 At used equipment prices, the gift was worth more than $12,000. The church only had to rent a truck and drive into New York to pick up the items. The total cost for truck rental, tolls and gas: $300.

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