We Are a Community of Givers…….
Everywhere you look someone is raising funds, collecting food, donating their time to serve meals or they’re delivering food boxes to those in need. In these uncertain times The Community Kitchen has fared well, thanks in large part to the generosity of local donors. However, we continue to need your vital help as new individuals and families come to us for help.
Please click the image below for more information
Upcoming Events & News
JOB OPPORTUNITIES
The Hot Meals Manager is responsible for overseeing the safe, efficient, sufficient, and appealing production of all prepared-food programming offered by The Community Kitchen. This role is responsible for ensuring that all paid and volunteer staff using the kitchen facilities are operating in manner that ensures personal safety, food safety, and hygiene. They ensure that the kitchen is properly supplied with food and other materials, that all necessary equipment is in place and in good working order, and that all areas, including food storage areas and freezers, are clean, properly organized, and properly rotated. The Hot Meals Manager supervises the dishwashers, evening and weekend meal supervisors, cooks/cooking assistants, and hot meals volunteers.
Please click here for more information. Or call 603-352-3200.
This is a part-time position. Pantry Assistants are responsible for carrying out the manual tasks required to move, organize, and sort the large quantities of food that supply the pantry and hot meals programs. Pantry Assistants will become a regular face of the organization for our guests, so their ability to empathize and respectfully respond to guests’ needs, demonstrating a compassionate willingness to help, is paramount in this role. Please click here for more information. Or call 603-352-3200.
This part-time position fills the dishwashing and building custodial role, maintaining food safety standards while implementing and executing cleaning procedures in the commercial kitchen, as well as the building at large. Duties including the use of a commercial dish washer and a three bay sink, sweeping, mopping and buffing floors, emptying waste paper baskets, window and/or wall washing as needed, clearing and cleaning of tables as needed, overseeing the collection and machine washing of aprons, towels, and other kitchen textiles. Please click here for more information. Or call 603-352-3200.
Corona Virus Updates for the Hot Meals and Food Pantry Distribution
In an effort to keep everyone safe, we have instituted a change in our Hot Meals and Pantry Programs:
Hot Meals: evening meals are served as take-out
Monday through Friday from 5pm – 6:20pm
Lunch on Sunday from 11am -12noon.
Pantry hours will stay the same:
Wednesday- Drive Thru 12.30-5.30pm
Thursday- Walk Thru 11.30 am – 4pm
Any questions please call 603 352 3200
Wednesday- Drive Thru 12.30-5.30pm
Thursday- Walk Thru 11.30 am – 4pm
Any questions please call 603 352 3200
On Wednesdays, pantry clients will continue to check in at the front door of the building and will then be directed to the back door where they will pick up their food. Pre-packed bags of non-perishable food items, bread, meat and some produce will be distributed.
On Thursdays, pantry clients will enter the building wearing a mask. They will then check in at the first window and then walk through the building making choices from the same available food as Wednesday. Please bring bags and boxes to carry your food home.
New guests wishing to register will be given a registration form and will be asked to bring proof of residency, income and date of birth for household members, the following week.
The Community Kitchen, with the help of Strong Resource Group, has approved a strategic plan!
You can find a summary of the plan here. >2022-2025 Strategic Plan
Donate now to The Community Kitchen using Paypal
The Community Kitchen stands in solidarity
The Community Kitchen stands in solidarity with people of color and other historically marginalized communities in the fight for equality, social reform and justice in the wake of recent incidents of violence against people of color including George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and others. . . . Read More>
The Community Kitchen Welcomes You.
RAISE FUNDS/ GIVE FOOD
Each year we have wonderful individuals and organizations who create a fundraiser or food drive for us. Click image to learn how.
GLEANING
There is an abundance of local gardens that offer fresh produce every summer to The Community Kitchen. We always need volunteers to help glean the vegetables. Learn how by clicking the image.
VOLUNTEERING
Volunteers are one of the most important parts of running The Community Kitchen. Click the image to learn how to become a volunteer.
Gleaning For The Community Kitchen
The Gleaning Project was initiated in 2013 as one of six regional gleaning projects across the state of NH, initiated with funding from the You Have Our Trust Fund.
Over the years, over twenty commercial farms in the county have donated produce either after it has been harvested or directly from the field, greenhouse, or orchard, where crews of volunteers gather to harvest crops that range from baby salad greens to sweet corn to apples. Gleaners also collect products at the end of farmer’s market days, while home gardeners and community gardeners donate their garden extras or their crops that were grown specifically to feed their neighbors in need. In all, the community has donated over 250,000 pounds of fresh local produce to support Cheshire County residents facing food insecurity in the course of eight seasons.
Over the years, over twenty commercial farms in the county have donated produce either after it has been harvested or directly from the field, greenhouse, or orchard, where crews of volunteers gather to harvest crops that range from baby salad greens to sweet corn to apples. Gleaners also collect products at the end of farmer’s market days, while home gardeners and community gardeners donate their garden extras or their crops that were grown specifically to feed their neighbors in need. In all, the community has donated over 250,000 pounds of fresh local produce to support Cheshire County residents facing food insecurity in the course of eight seasons.
A year into the Covid 19 pandemic, there have been a number of impacts on the global food system that have reverberated across New Hampshire. Food insecurity has doubled over 2019 rates to impact 1 in 7 residents in the state. Meanwhile, the price of groceries in the US has risen 3.5% over the same year as food supplies have been tight. At The Community Kitchen, traditional sources of food donations were also more limited after the pandemic hit, while local farms saw a welcome increase in demand for their products and were therefore left with less product available for gleaning.
As we approach the 2021 season, we have a year of experience with implementing Covid-safe opportunities for our gleaning volunteers and we expect the need for gleaning to return to traditional levels as local producers adjust to higher demands. If patterns of food insecurity reflect those from prior economic upheavals, we can also expect the need to remain high through 2021 and probably the following few years.
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