An Article Published Online on Hunterdon County Democrat.
By Sallie Graziano on Saturday, November 20, 2010.
Twenty-five turkeys are being popped into ovens around the Lambertville area this weekend in preparation for the big meal — the day before Thanksgiving. It’s the second Thanksgiving meal that the Community Kitchen at Centenary United Methodist Church will host. “Last year we had about 140 people for Thanksgiving and cooked 17 turkeys,” said Mike Gehrig, one of the moving forces behind the Community Kitchen’s success. “This year we’re starting with 25.”
The kitchen’s been open at the church since January 2009, and in that time has served upwards of 12,000 free meals. But the Community Kitchen is about more than just feeding hungry people.
“We wanted to serve the neediest people in the community, but we didn’t want them to feel needy,” said Pastor Judy Gehrig, the other half of the equation. “People from all walks of life come together over food,” she said. “We all have that in common, and then we realize we all want the same things. There’s no ‘we’ or ‘them.’ It’s a way of building peace in the world.”
Judy Gehrig became a minister later in life, and this is her first church. “It’ll probably be my only church,” she said, “and it’s been a lovely experience.” The couple was at first a bit concerned about the church’s location. “It felt constrained, with no parking except on the street,” Judy said. How could they attract new members if there was nowhere to park? Then they realized: This is a walking town.
“This building should be used as much as possible, by whoever wants to use it,” Judy said. And it’s getting a lot of use, hosting English as a Second Language classes, a Coming Alive discussion group and more. A free Cool Yule jazz concert featuring the Vance Camisa quartet is coming up Dec. 4 at 7 p.m.
An area off the main dining area has served as a distribution point all summer for fresh and organic produce. “It’s a free farmers’ market,” Mike said. Sarah Snyder-Kamen and her mother Cathy Snyder dropped by on a recent Wednesday morning with an SUV packed full of greens, lettuce, scallions, jalapenos, cilantro, parsley and more. “We collect from farms all over the area and drop off here, at Meals-on-Wheels, the Lambertville food pantry, Fisherman’s Mark, Doylestown,” Snyder-Kamen said. “We’re gas guzzling for good.”
With the harvest season winding down, that area of the dining hall is transitioning to a collection point for donated coats. Rows of racks are filling up quickly. As people wandered in for a recent Wednesday lunch, they drifted over to the racks and perused the offerings. “My lucky day!” said one man, finding a checked wool coat just the right size.
People are getting the message of love, Judy said. “Methodists are rethinking what church means, and this outreach certainly touches more lives than I would have been able to touch just preaching in the sanctuary.”
The location that once seemed a challenge now appears to be a blessing. “Now we’re in this mission, and we’re in the perfect place,” Judy said. “It’s funny how things change when you shift your focus.”
The Gehrigs have found that the Community Kitchen has carved out a niche for itself, complementing other missions of the church that’s served the city since 1834. “Seniors, neighbors walk in,” Mike said. Lunch “becomes a social event for a lot of folks. It’s their day out.”
There’s one requirement when you come in the door: Put on a nametag with just your first name. “It’s easier to start a conversation that way,” Judy said.
Many of those conversations have fostered friendships. “You get to know people without associating any resources with them,” Mike said. “People come in, some of them very affluently retired, and get to know the other people here. All of a sudden you see them helping them, whether it’s filling out a job application or giving them a ride to the store.”
The Community Kitchen’s first meal, a crockpot of canned soup and ham-and-cheese sandwiches, drew two people, with nine volunteers ready to help. “So we all sat down and had a nice visit,” Judy said. “We weren’t the least discouraged. We just seemed to know it was the right thing to do.”
And the food’s a far cry from soup and sandwiches. St. Philips Church in New Hope was sponsoring a recent Wednesday lunch that offered mixed root vegetables, tuna and olives with almonds, homemade macaroni and cheese, chicken and wild rice, vegetable barley and tomato bisque soups, bowties with meatballs, chicken teriyaki, chicken and sausage cassoulet, organic Yukon potato and yam au gratin with onions and Parmesan cheese, and the fresh fruit salad and green salad that’s always served.
Attendance grew gradually. “Our first meal where we had 100 or more was last Thanksgiving,” Judy said. “Mike and I looked across the room at each other. I gave him a thumbs up, and he had tears streaming down his cheeks.”
Now the kitchen serves around 125 people at its Wednesday lunches (11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.), and another 25 to 40 at Sunday brunch (11 a.m.-12:30 p.m.). On nights when ESL classes are held, another 25 people or so eat there. The meals are free, with a big glass jar on the nametag table ready to accept whatever donations people wish to contribute.
“There’s nobody in charge in the kitchen,” Mike said. “I think that’s the key to it.”
“None of us had any kitchen experience when we started,” he said. Now they know to always have more food than what they think will be eaten. Organizations that have been sponsoring meals from the start, like the Homestead Farm Market, know how much food to provide, having followed the growing demand. Newer sponsors get a visual clue. “We give them aluminum baking pans,” Mike said, “and say, ‘Fill 16 of these.'”
A number of area churches and organizations support the Community Kitchen, including Lambertville Kiwanis, Lambertville-New Hope Rotary, Starbucks of New Hope, Diversity Inc. of Newark, Trinity Episcopal in Buckingham, Pa., VanHorn-McDonough Funeral Home, Junior Girl Scout troop 80109, Titusville United Methodist Church, and the Unitarian church in Washington Crossing.
A loyal crew of volunteers does their best to make sure the food’s hot and plentiful. On a recent Wednesday, volunteers from St. Philips joined the kitchen regulars, heating food up and filling chafing dishes on a large buffet table as residents trickled in the front door. Beryl Sortino was turning out grilled cheese sandwiches on a griddle as she talked about how smoothly things run in the kitchen. “Somebody always just steps up to the plate,” she said.
When the folding screens that closed off the buffet area opened at 11:30 a.m., an enthusiastic line surged forward to fill their own plates. Judy stood back in the kitchen, smiling at the results of the day’s efforts. “We’re here to be the church,” she said, “not the building.”
