Community

‘It worked out perfectly’: Claremont Soup Kitchen, culinary students team up to cook up some meals

By Patrick Adrian
EAGLE TIMES STAFF
CLAREMONT — Stevens High School students in the culinary program joined community restaurants this week to aid the Claremont Soup Kitchen in preparing meals for families and residents while the nonprofit community agency’s cooking space is undergoing repairs.

Culinary students at the Sugar River Valley Regional Technical Center partnered with cooks at the Claremont Soup Kitchen on Wednesday to prepare take-home dinners for Claremont residents in need of assistance, while the soup kitchen’s kitchen is temporarily closed for a flooring renovation.

In addition to sharing the culinary program kitchen with the soup kitchen staff, Stevens High School’ culinary students contributed 349 meatballs to Wednesday’s dinner, which the students prepared and cooked during class.

“Their willingness to help out was amazing,” said Claremont Soup Kitchen Executive Director Cindy Stevens, who noted that this week would have been “much more difficult” if not for the help of the Sugar River Valley Regional Technical Center.

Stevens expressed gratitude to Alex Herzog, director of the Claremont career-technical education center, and Sarah Kainu, instructor of the culinary arts program, for their help.

“They have been truly wonderful in working with us through a challenging week,” Stevens said. “And we appreciate the relationship we have had with them as well.”

The Claremont Soup Kitchen had to find a solution this week to provide meals while their kitchen was closed for reflooring, a project which contractors were able to begin sooner than initially anticipated.

“Closing temporarily is not how our soup kitchen works,” said Johanna Parker, a cook at the Claremont Soup Kitchen. “Even if our kitchen is closed, we are still committed to serving three meals a day, Monday through Friday, and our weekend meals.”

Fortunately, the Claremont Soup Kitchen still had funds available from a 10-week pilot program with Everyone Eats that the soup kitchen launched last year in partnership with the nonprofit organization Vital Communities.

Everyone Eats originated in 2020 as a statewide Vermont program, aimed to simultaneously assist families, restaurants and food producers during the pandemic. The program purchased to-go meals from local restaurants to feed people who are food-insecure due to lack of income or an inability to travel. The program also required that 10 percent of each meal’s ingredients were grown or produced in-state.

In March of 2021 Vital Communities partnered with Claremont to launch a pilot program in New Hampshire, in the hope to inspire other New Hampshire communities to pursue the program.

The Claremont program received a $22,000 grant from the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, which was estimated to purchase 1,800 total meals from the participating restaurants. The participating restaurants received $10.90 per meal, which includes a 9 percent New Hampshire rooms and meals tax.

Using remaining funds from the program, the Claremont Soup Kitchen contracted Sunshine Cookshop, a Jamaican restaurant on Pleasant Street, to provide meals for Monday’s dinner and The Common Man to provide meals for Tuesday and Thursday.

The Sugar River Valley Regional Technical Center donated the use of its kitchen to the soup kitchen staff on Wednesday and Friday.

While Stevens High School culinary students made the meatballs as a classwork assignment, the students will gain some additional hands-on experience, along with community service hours, when they cater a dinner for the soup kitchen staff on March 24.

“We threw out the idea of having the students cater, knowing their need for opportunities to get more experience,” Stevens said. “We will supply the food and they will prepare it.”

Last week the culinary program, which upgraded its seating and tables in the Teal Lantern dining room, donated its old tables and chairs to the Claremont Soup Kitchen.

Because the furniture is purchased with funds from a Perkins Grant, an federal fund designated for career and technical education programs, Kainu said the old furniture must first be offered to other career and technical education centers. If no center expresses interest, the furniture gets offered to nonprofits.

“Cindy was actually looking for brand new tables and chairs,” Kainu said. “So it worked out perfectly.”

reporter @eagletimes.com

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