Bethel local community rallies to cook dinner, provide foods for seniors
Bonnie Pooley, left, hands the dessert Sunday for the Sunday Cooks food to Marilyn Dupuis at the Sudbury Village in Bethel. Pooley has taken on the lion’s share of providing the meals to seniors in the program, and capabilities as a liaison in between the Sunday Chefs and the recipients. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal Purchase this Picture
BETHEL — Back again in March, when people of Maine commenced residing beneath newly instituted constraints on social gatherings driven by the coronavirus pandemic, two newcomers to the Bethel place, with the help of lots of other people from town, arrived up with a plan to put together and supply household-cooked foods to seniors who live alone.
Though Jim Klesitz and his husband, James Caplinger, acknowledged informally as the “Sunday Cooks,” have been accountable for cooking the meals each individual week because March, the program has blossomed over nine months thanks to donations from group members.
Klesitz said he and Caplinger moved to Bryant Pond four years in the past. Given that then, they experienced not met several many others in the place.
That all adjusted when the coronavirus began carving its way via Maine.
“When COVID to start with strike, I was hunting to help in any way I could,” Klesitz claimed.
Klesitz claimed he labored in 2008 in senior house administration and had taken on a home that had a senior food program.
“It was pretty scarce for most (Housing and City Progress) qualities to have a food software like that,” Klesitz stated. “When I first bought there, the workers was taking frozen food, reheating it and serving it. I explained to them: ‘No, no. The food has to bee cooked from scratch.’ For the duration of my time there, I received them transitioned to generating refreshing food stuff.”
In search of a way to help, Klesitz commenced asking close to to see if there was way he could help by cooking meals for persons in will need in the Bethel region.
1 of Klesitz’s neighbors directed him to Bonnie Pooley, a retired Gould Academy English teacher and member of the Local Meals Relationship in Bethel.
Pooley claimed that all through the early times of the pandemic, she and the other associates of the Regional Food stuff Relationship were being wanting to connect folks in will need with accessibility to food.
“At first, we were carrying out soup foods at church,” she said, “but owing to point out limits, we could not do that all of a unexpected.”
The Local Meals Link, according to Pooley, is a nonprofit organization that encourages neighborhood associates to develop, put together, serve, obtain and take in area food items, and is a single of quite a few food items councils across the point out that make up the Maine Network of Local community Food Councils.
Pooley claimed Klesitz referred to as her and stated he loves to prepare dinner, and wanted to put together foods for seniors in the space to “keep them out of the grocery stores as a great deal as possible.”
From there, Pooley, Klesitz and Caplinger hatched a plan to cook foods and deliver them to seniors each Sunday.
Each individual week, Klesitz claimed he and his husband prepare dinner and get ready the meals, though other Bethel residents assistance by planning desserts.
Jim Klesitz, left, and his husband, James Caplinger, are the Sunday Cooks, preparing meals for seniors in the Bethel spot. The two are shown Sunday in front of their property in Woodstock. The method, funded mainly by donations from local community members, has been growing just about every week. Andree Kehn/Solar Journal Acquire this Photograph
The food may differ from week to week, though Klesitz claimed most months, he can make soup at the starting of the week and places it in the freezer till Sunday.
On Sunday morning, Pooley picks up the meals and begins generating the rounds, providing meals to extra than 40 seniors in the place.
At very first, Pooley would deliver meals to seniors at Sudbury Village, a 48-unit inexpensive housing complicated in Bethel, and the Bethel Residence on Main Road.
In excess of time, Pooley claimed, she and the Sunday Chefs recognized there were being seniors outdoors of backed housing who were being dwelling by yourself and necessary support.
“There are some people I’ve delivered food to who are in their 90s, and they dwell by itself and take care of themselves,” Pooley explained. “For a lot of these people, when I exhibit up to produce them their foods, it is the only time in the course of the week that they’re acquiring any social interaction. It is a big part of their day.”
Klesitz explained the previous nine months of cooking and delivering would not have been possible without the donations and assistance of quite a few neighborhood members.
“When we very first began this, it was myself and my partner spending for all the meals,” Klesitz said. “As it grew, Bonnie explained, ‘We have to figure out some kind of funding.’”
As phrase unfold of what Klesitz, Caplinger and Pooley were doing, the donations started out rolling in. At times, it was financial donations in the variety of money or checks. Other occasions, the donations arrived in the type of desserts or other food items.
“Every 7 days, we have distinctive persons building desserts to go alongside with the meals,” Klesitz mentioned. “Some months, we have persons donating pork or rooster, or containers to provide the food stuff in. This is certainly a group effort and hard work.”
Although Pooley delivers foods to about 44 seniors, on ordinary, every week, Klesitz stated some weeks are higher than other folks.
“Today, we had 154 meals out for shipping and delivery,” Klesitz reported. “We’re constantly coordinating with individuals in the community to make certain we have adequate for everyone.”
As COVID-19 conditions continue to surge in the course of Maine, with no indications of slowing, Klesitz reported he and his partner are “in it for the extended haul.”
“It has been remarkable to see the group occur together and help out,” Klesitz claimed. “We figured this would proceed into the summer season of 2021, so we’re completely ready to preserve aiding.”
As for Pooley, she mentioned even if the pandemic stretches properly into 2021, she and the Sunday Cooks will go on cooking and delivering for the seniors in their local community.
“We’ll get via this collectively,” Pooley claimed, “and we will keep on to serve this group for as extensive as it can take.”
« Preceding
Similar Stories
