KEESEVILLE — The Hope Kitchen resumes free community suppers from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m Friday, Jan. 10, at the Keeseville Good Shepherd Church of the Nazarene, located at 124 Hill St. in Keeseville.
“The Hope Kitchen is a ministry of the Keeseville Good Shepherd Church of the Nazarene,” the Rev. Noelle Eichenberger, lead pastor, said.
“It came from a desire to just meet a need in our community. We saw that there was a lot of food insecurity. Even though we have a ton of local farms in the area, there was just a disconnect between getting food to the people who needed it. As a church we began praying. What does it look like to meet a very basic need? We decided to convert our kitchen from a quintessential church kitchen into a certified kitchen so that we could open it for public use.”
The church has a three-pronged mission: eat, educate, and empower.
“The first part is eat, and it’s basically helping people to eat a healthy home-cooked meal,” Eichenberger said.
“We try to do as much local food as we can. Again, try to connect people to the food that’s grown in our area. We have a lot of partners, a lot of local farm partners. We work with the Essex Food Hub. We work with Cornell Cooperative Extension. We’re really passionate not just wanting to feed people but feed people well. There is a lot of dignity in being able to serve someone a home cooked and healthy meal.”
The Friday community suppers are open to anyone to eat-in or take-out. There is no charge, but donations are accepted.
“The second piece is educate,” Eichenberger said.
“We do food education classes. Currently, we work with a couple of organizations in the area. We work with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Clinton County, the AuSable Valley, again, some of the local farms in the area.”
Past food education classes included a class on food preservation.
“Something that we’ve noticed is that there are options for people to get access to local products, but they don’t know always know what to do with it. So, what does it look like to teach people how to do meal prep? How to process something like a butternut squash or bok choy?”
Teaching people how to feed themselves leads to the third prong: empower.
“That is empowering people to feed themselves,” Eichenberger said.
“It’s offering our space for community members to use as a low cost for rental. If someone is looking to start a food-based business and then need a space to use that has a certified kitchen, we’re an option for them or if someone wants to conduct cooking classes. Again, it’s really just trying to meet a basic human need but also just letting people know they matter. There’s something really beautiful about preparing a meal and sharing it with others. That’s really the heart behind it is wanting to feed people and let them know that they are cared for and they are loved.”
The kitchen is certified by the Health Department, and meals are held in the church’s Fellowship Hall.
“People come in on Friday nights and they can grab a plate of food and sit,” she said.
“They come from all walks of life, which is very beautiful.”
Eichenberger and her husband, Ben, a professional chef, have food industry and restaurant expertise.
“Once I got into the ministry, I kind of stepped away, but my husband was a professional chef for years and an organic vegetable farmer,” she said.
“This has been a really beautiful way for him to use his skills. One thing that he really loves to do is he loves to feed people. He loves to bake bread and that’s something that we’ve kind of become know for in the two months that we’ve opened up to the public, our homemade bread. It’s just really a labor of love for him is making homemade bread to go with the meal every week.”