fbpx
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Sign up for Free Newsletter
  • Print Edition
    • Get Home Delivery
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
    • Advertise
    • Customer Support
    • Submit A News Tip
    • Where’s My Paper?
  • Manage HV1 Account
Hudson Valley One
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Podcast
  • Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Podcast
  • Log In
No Result
View All Result
Hudson Valley One
No Result
View All Result

Woodstock Library program gets kids cooking for the soup kitchen

by Violet Snow
September 6, 2017
in Community
0
Woodstock Library program gets kids cooking for the soup kitchen

Anthony Heaney prepares the chickens. (photo by Dion Ogust)

Anthony Heaney prepares the chickens. (photo by Dion Ogust)

One of the Woodstock Library’s most popular workshops for children this summer was the cooking class led by Emily Sherry and Anthony Heaney, who run Provisions, the Tinker Street sandwich shop. On August 29, 14 kids, aged eight through 15, gathered in the kitchen of the Woodstock Reformed Church to make chicken soup, which was served the next day at the Daily Bread Soup Kitchen, held at Christ’s Lutheran Church down the road.

Dawn Meola, the library’s Coordinator of Children’s Services, still has a waiting list of interested kids and plans to schedule a second class. “We’re really happy about the collaboration among the two churches, Provisions, and the library,” said Meola. “We want to do more of that kind of thing.”

Sherry and Heaney (business partners, not a couple as is sometimes assumed) are pleased both to pass on their skills to children and to educate kids about the problem of food insecurity in our community. Provisions is among the local restaurants that make a meal once every six weeks or donate other food, enabling the soup kitchen to offer a free hot meal to 40 to 60 people every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Volunteers from local houses of worship and community service organizations take turns setting the tables, serving, and cleaning up.

As Sherry explained to the students, “We make food and donate it to people who can’t cook for themselves, either because they don’t have enough money to buy food or because they don’t have a kitchen to cook in — some people are homeless.” Two of the kids had already volunteered to help serve at Wednesday’s meal.

Tyler, a 13-year-old from Saugerties, described her reasons for taking the class. “I’m into the culinary arts and want to have a career in that some day.”

Landry, 10, attends Bennett Elemetary School in Boiceville. She explained, “My mom said, ‘Okay, you’re taking a cooking class, and I said, ‘Good! I like to cook.’ I like to make quesadillas. They’re easy to make.”

Alex, who also goes to Bennett, is Sherry’s 11-year-old son. “As I get older,” he said, with an ironic smile, “I want to learn how to cook so I can fend for myself in the dark, harsh world.”

Sherry handed out recipes for roast chicken and chicken soup and gave strict instructions on how to handle the meat. “Don’t touch your mouth or nose after touching the raw chicken. And never wash the uncooked chicken. It sprays salmonella bacteria all over the kitchen.”

Soon kids were paired up and measuring out herbs, then donning plastic gloves and squishing the herbs into softened butter. They learned to separate the skin from the breast and smear the herbed butter inside and all around the surface of the bird. Sherry’s careful direction soon had them slicing zucchini and peeling carrots, with respect for sharp instruments.

At the same time, church volunteer Judy Fox was receiving a load of vegetables from UlsterCorps, an organization that works with Family of Woodstock and area farmers to provide fresh produce to those in need. Splendid little striped eggplants, fat tomatoes, Swiss chard, and other vegetables had been gleaned from local farms — that is, gathered from what was left behind after the farmer’s pickers had finished harvesting a field.

Gleaning is a directive of the Bible, which instructs farmers, “When you harvest the crops of your land, do not harvest the grain along the edges of your fields, and do not pick up what the harvesters drop. Leave it for the poor and the foreigners living among you.” (Leviticus 23:22, New Living Translation)

The UlsterCorps website states, “Approximately 20,000 people in Ulster County are food insecure, including 6500 children. Food waste in the United States is estimated at roughly 30 to 40 percent of the food supply.”

Volunteers glean produce from fields, with the farmers’ permission, and their gleanings are trucked to the municipal parking lot just off the corner of Rock City Road and Mill Hill Road every Tuesday morning throughout the summer. Food pantries pick up boxes of vegetables, and then individuals are permitted to take supplies for their own use, no questions asked, although they are asked to sign in so the program has documentation for grant applications.

The remaining produce is delivered to Woodstock Reformed to distribute at its Good Neighbor Food Pantry, which gets about 120 clients picking up fresh vegetables, canned goods, and other supplies, each Wednesday, and another 60 clients on Thursdays.

Fox noted that the food pantry will be receiving $5000 from Hannaford Supermarket in West Hurley at its opening celebration, Saturday, September 2, with another $5000 going to Onteora Central School District. At a 6:30 a.m. ribbon-cutting ceremony, Hannaford will hand out free gift cards (randomly valued between $5 and $250) to the first 200 customers.

Sherry said Provisions is moving from its tiny shop to a much bigger space, with parking available, at the Woodstock Golf Club on Mill Hill Road at Route 375. “We will be assuming the lease as of 12/1/17 at the golf course,” she stated, “and are hoping to host holiday parties in that space. However, Provisions on Tinker Street won’t close until after 1/1/18.” Provisions’ pay-it-forward board will no longer be available, but Sherry will be addressing the needs of the hungry by joining the board of directors at the Daily Bread Soup Kitchen. She looks forward to helping the organization expand its services.

The Good Neighbor Food Pantry offers a three-day supply of free food Wednesdays from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. and Thursdays from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. It is located in the Woodstock Reformed Church, 16 Tinker Street, on the Village Green. To arrange deliveries to the housebound or to volunteer, call 845-417-5535. The Daily Bread Soup Kitchen serves meals Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., at Christ’s Lutheran Church, 26 Mill Hill Road, Woodstock. For more information, or to volunteer, call 845-679-2336. To learn more about UlsterCorps, or to help with gleaning or distribution, visit http://www.ulstercorps.org.

Thank you for reading Hudson Valley One. We rely on your support to continue providing local, substantive news. Please check out our subscription options to keep local journalism alive in the Hudson Valley.
- Geddy Sveikauskas, Publisher
Previous Post

Few rules on mural placement on Saugerties’ historic buildings

Next Post

Kingston redevelopment project at site of former parking garage takes shape

Violet Snow

Violet Snow wrote regularly for the Woodstock Times for 17 years and continues to contribute to Hudson Valley One. She has been published in the New York Times “Disunion” blog, Civil War Times, American Ancestors, Jewish Currents, and many other periodicals. An excerpt from her historical novel, To March or to Marry, has appeared in the feminist journal Minerva Rising. She lives in Phoenicia and is currently working with horses, living out her childhood dream.

Related Posts

Record-breaking crowds attend the Hudson Valley Pride March & Festival in New Paltz
Community

Hudson Valley Pride Coalition March and Festival planned for June 5 in New Paltz

May 17, 2022
Spring at the Kingston YMCA Farm Project
Community

Spring at the Kingston YMCA Farm Project

May 16, 2022
New children’s music garden at Kingston Library
Community

New children’s music garden at Kingston Library

May 16, 2022
City of Kingston celebrates its 150th anniversary
Community

City of Kingston celebrates its 150th anniversary

May 16, 2022
Abortion rights march in Kingston
Community

Abortion rights march in Kingston

May 16, 2022
Olive Free Library exhibition “Behind the Scenes” opens May 21
Art & Music

Olive Free Library exhibition “Behind the Scenes” opens May 21

May 15, 2022
Next Post
Kingston parking passes for municipal lots on sale next week

Kingston redevelopment project at site of former parking garage takes shape

Trending News

  • Bubbe’s Deli opens in Gardiner’s former Mountain Harbor 1.6k views
  • Woodstock Library bond passes 1.1k views
  • Saugertes man faces multiple charges after domestic disturbance 1k views
  • The moon is down in Central Hudson 680 views
  • D&H Canal Museum in High Falls poised for June 18 Grand Opening 443 views







Latest HV1 Podcast

Weather

Kingston
◉
63°
Fair
5:32am8:12pm EDT
Feels like: 63°F
Wind: 8mph WNW
Humidity: 43%
Pressure: 29.81"Hg
UV index: 0
WedThuFri
72/52°F
70/52°F
84/63°F
Weather forecast Kingston, New York ▸

Ulster County COVID-19 Active Cases

Subscribe

Independent. Local. Substantive. Subscribe now.

  • Subscribe & Support
  • Sign up for Free Newsletter
  • Print Edition
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
  • Manage HV1 Account

© 2022 Ulster Publishing

No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Podcast
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Contact Us
    • Customer Support
    • Advertise
    • Submit A News Tip
  • Print Edition
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
    • Where’s My Paper
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Log In

© 2022 Ulster Publishing