While hunger and poverty may not be visibly apparent in Keene and other parts of Cheshire county, in September alone, the Community Kitchen located on Mechanic Street in downtown Keene provided over 5,000 people access to food through its pantry and hot meal service.
According to the Feeding America 2012 report, 49 million Americans were living in food-insecure households, 33.1 million adults and 15.9 million children. The Community Kitchen, which was founded in 1983, began with a group of people serving meals three nights a week in various church basements.
Current Executive Director of the kitchen, Phoebe Bray, said the founders quickly realized the endeavor needed to expand.
Leah Mulroney / Equinox Staff:
Volunteers at the Community Kitchen in Keene cook meals, serve guests and help take care of the pantry. With only a few paid staff members, the kitchen is almost completely reliant on volunteers from the community.
“People were asking to take food home, any leftovers were asked for so they realized there was another need and that was for supplementary food boxes and that started a few years later,” Bray said.
As the kitchen grew, it became evident that borrowing space was no longer the most sensible option. “There was no storage, there was no continuity and you would have to clean everything before you could start cooking so the building we’re in now was purchased in 1994 and they then had to raise more funds to convert it into what it is today,” Bray explained.
With only several paid staff members, the kitchen is almost completely reliant on volunteers from the community to prepare food, cook meals, serve guests, help run the pantry and much more.
While many volunteers are residents of Cheshire county, one class at Keene State College is required to lend a helping hand at least three times throughout the semester for a minimum of two-and a-half-hours each visit.
Current Topics in Food Culture is a 200-level Health Science class taught by Health Science Professor, Lynn Arnold.
“We explore the reasons why people eat. All of the different cultural aspects of making food choices, the aesthetics of health reasons, we explore the different cultures around the world and what their food choices are and we also go in depth into American food culture,” Arnold continued.
“One of the things we look at in that is the question of hunger, food and security because it’s such a huge issue in this country and around the world.”
To incorporate service learning, which is where students apply what they learn from their course work by working in the local community, the Health Science Department decided many years ago that having students volunteer at the kitchen would be most beneficial.
“We chose the Community Kitchen because of the connection with insecurity and this is a way students are giving to the community and serving while also seeing first hand what hunger in the community looks like,” Arnold said.
Bray agreed that while the student volunteers are helping the community, they are also learning a great deal.
“I think the numbers stagger because if you drive through Keene, it looks really nice but the absolute grinding poverty that some people live in is a constant shock to me and I think its an eye-opener for some of the students,” Bray said,.
She continued, “You can learn about poverty and hunger in the rest of the world but when it’s literally on your own doorstep I think it’s really important to take notice.”
Sophomore and student in Arnold’s class, Danielle Recos, said the experience has been eye-opening.
“I was surprised by the amount of people that utilize the kitchen, I was there at dinner time and there was very heavy traffic running through the place. I think sometimes people don’t realize how much they really have until they see what people don’t have, including just a meal,” the sophomore said.
Recos also noted that working with other volunteers was a big reason why her experience at the kitchen was so positive.
“The other volunteers are always very charismatic and very excited to be there, you can tell they all really enjoy helping people.”
Bray said she believes the student volunteers can learn a lot from spending time with these people.
“Our volunteers range from one of our staff that used to be a restaurant cook to a volunteer who is a baker at one of the supermarkets in Peterborough. On any given day, we have a variety of people in and I think that’s good for a student because I think it’s part of education that you actually learn how to connect with different people from different socioeconomic groups and different walks of life,” Bray said.
Bray said having the student volunteers become such reliable members of the team has been a “Godsend” and she believes it is positive for the college’s image in light of recent events.
“Having just gone through Pumpkin Fest, where Keene State students didn’t necessarily get a great write-up in the Keene Sentinel, it’s actually nice to present a different face of the college”
Anyone interested in volunteering can pick up a volunteer registration form from the Keene Community Kitchen located at 35-37 Mechanic Street.
Rachel Heard can be contacted at rheard@keene-equinox.com