What does a community-supported kitchen look like? It’s the trifecta of community funds, community labor and community being fed with dignity.
One intergenerational example resides in an old school in the Barre Street neighborhood of Montpelier. The FEAST Meals on Wheels/Senior Meals kitchen, run by Shalonda James (she/her) and Poa Mutino (they/he), featuring mouth-watering local foods and volunteers ranging from 14-84 in age.
The kitchen produces 2,000 meals every month for some of the most lonely and invisible members of our community: homebound elders and homebound people living with disability.
For some reason, we’re stuck on a grant treadmill in a well-heeled town. Our pitch is this: 400 Montpelier residents donate $100 per year. With this $40,000, we support living wages for our diverse staff and keep busting the stigma of government slop on a plate that haunts Meals on Wheels countrywide.
Vermont is leading the nation in high-quality nutrition for elders, and leading the nation in the percentage of people over 55. We are rooted with the only capital city-run farm in the country that supports elder nutrition. We are rooted with hundreds of local volunteers. Help root us with a donation today. Visit bit.ly/MFM2023 to donate or stop by the senior center today. Or, come to our gala and silent auction Saturday, March 18, from 5 to 7 p.m.
The time is now to support our nation’s historic signing of the Older Americans Act with a donation during National March for Meals month.
Poa Mutino
Montpelier