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Date: 8/3/2021
CHESTER – Chef John Slattery and volunteer Tami Wright served a meal of sauteed vegetables, beans and sausage, cucumber salad with sour cream and poppy seed dressing, kale slaw, blueberry slump and lemonade at the town ballfield in Chester on Aug. 1, in what they hope will be the first of regularly occurring community meals.
“I’ve been doing this off and on since the pandemic,” said Slattery, a professional chef. He added that he’s been serving soup suppers and dinners from donated local ingredients somewhere in the Hilltowns for the past year and a half.
“There are not enough family dinners in the world anymore,” Slattery said.
The Aug. 1 meal was a combined grassroots effort with Slattery, Chester resident Michele Kenney and the Drowsy Dragon Kitchen, a commercial kitchen to rent in downtown Chester, where Slattery prepared the meal. Leftover vegetables were donated by the Hilltown Mobile Market, and the Cream of the Crop farm in Russell contributed a generous donation of kidney beans, chicken broth, homemade sour cream and whole wheat tortillas. Slattery donated the sausage. A $5 donation was suggested for people who could donate, to help buy food containers and utensils.
Kenney said she helped coordinate the meal because she’d like to see more community meals in Chester, and just as important, more opportunities to get together as a community in a safe, outdoor space.
Future meals, which will be announced at www.chefjohnslattery.com and on Facebook under Chef John Slattery and the Chester Massachusetts Community Forum, may be moved to the lawn next to the Riverside Inn, which is directly across the street from the kitchen. Kenney said the group is looking for donations of picnic tables, to-go containers, cups, utensils and plates, as well as donations of food.
Anyone interested in donating or getting involved may leave a message for Kenney at the Village Enterprise Center at 354-1055.