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Kitchen Angels |
1222 Siler Road Santa Fe, NM 87507 |
505.471.7780
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Thank you for your on-going dedication and support of Kitchen Angels and the community of Santa Fe.
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VOLUNTEER
MILESTONE
ANNIVERSARIES
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1 Year
Barbara McBride
Donna Block
Eli Yasek
Susan Mooney
5 Years
Bob Catherwood
Sue Catherwood
Jim Steed
25 Years
Karen Sonn
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"Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles
of nature, is a help."
May Sarton
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Announcements
We are beginning to receive emails and call from individuals interested in returning to the volunteer shift they worked prior to time spent in self-quarantine. We sure have missed you all, and are looking forward to seeing you again! That being said, there are many things to consider before returning to a volunteer shift.
Kitchen Angels is rigorously screening every person who volunteers and scheduling is tightly controlled. This means we have less flexibility than we had previously. Shifts have fewer volunteers than they did in the past with eight during the morning kitchen shift and seven for the afternoon crew. This is to maintain appropriate social distancing protocols. Our enhanced safety procedures have kept volunteers and clients healthy during the pandemic. Although businesses are opening back up in Santa Fe, Kitchen Angels must remain vigilant until the virus is no longer a risk.
If you are interested in returning to a volunteer shift, please screen yourself according to these new regulations:
- Each week, before a volunteer shift, all volunteers are required to complete a self-assessment and attestation. Click here for the form. It is a chance for you to assess how you and those with whom you are in close contact move through the world. You need to fill out the form, save it, and send it to i[email protected].
- In addition to the screening form, please ask yourself the following questions:
- Am I able to work a full shift wearing a mask?
- Can I hear well enough from six-feet away if the other person is speaking through a mask?
- Am I willing to work a different shift than the one I previously worked?
- Can I commit to showing up to my shift on time without cancelling at the last minute?
- Can I adapt to a new environment?
- Can I reliably communicate with the volunteer coordinator?
- Do I feel more or less safe being back in the public sphere?
If you answer "NO" to any of these questions, it might not yet be time for you to return.
If you are confident in your ability to return as a volunteer, here is the new return process:
- Send Lauren your volunteer self-assessment form to [email protected]. In the same email, please let her know about your current availability. Do you only want to return to your previous shift/route or can you fill in as needed? List your available days and shifts or route number.
- For delivery drivers: your route is probably still waiting for you. You will need to watch this video, which details the new delivery protocols. Lauren will communicate with you regarding when your first shift will be.
- For delivery coordinators and delivery prep volunteers: these two jobs have been combined into one 3 ½ hour shift. Please contact Lauren directly by phone to discuss if you would like to train for the new routine.
- For kitchen volunteers: Lauren will add your name to the returning volunteer list in the order she receives your email, and will stay in contact with you. If you want to return to a specific shift, you may need to wait until an available spot opens up. If you are flexible, then you will receive Lauren's Thursday emails.
- Lauren sends out a Thursday Scheduling Email to volunteers interested in coming in for a shift. She will list the available dates/shifts. If you want to fill a shift, please email back. The shifts are assigned in the order of email received. Lauren will confirm your shift via email. You are welcome to be on this substitute list while you wait for a slot on your preferred shift. The schedule is made weekly. Lauren will let you know once she has a "permanent" position for you.
- When you arrive for your first shift, we will go over the new kitchen, delivery, or delivery prep protocols with you. The process may take some getting used to. If staff or other volunteers remind you of the procedures, please know that it isn't personal, but for the safety of everyone.
We are excited to welcome many of you back to our ranks in the coming months, but will be doing so with prudence and plenty of training. Life here at
Kitchen Angels is different, but we're still carrying out our mission to feed homebound individuals, which is the bottom line at the end of the day.
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Masks for All NM
Jammes Crowther is a junior at Mandela International Magnet School and has been a Kitchen Angels delivery volunteer for the past nine months. Jammes and his friend Miles have gone above and beyond to help the clients on route #16, and they're doing it again!
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Thank you for thinking of Kitchen Angels clients, Jammes!
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Jammes founded, and is the director of communications, for
the New Mexico chapter of Masks For All, an organization
designed and run by young people. With chapters in California, New York, New Jersey, and New Mexico, Masks For All makes it possible for communities to access free, handcrafted masks to protect people from COVID-19. In the past few months, the group has organized from the ground up, and hosted mask-drives to distribute their product to people throughout the local community.
The group has been hard at work producing 180 masks for current Kitchen Angels clients, who are susceptible to the virus, and who might have limited access to masks. The hand-made masks, which will be distributed to clients in their meal bags, are made locally with high-quality materials and should last for months with proper care.
Thank you Jammes and volunteers at Masks For All, for being such visionary, caring people. It gives us hope to see youth in our community helping to keep people safe and healthy during this challenging time! We're proud to call you a fellow Kitchen Angel.
Kitchen Angels will be working with
Coming Home Connections on their new
Caring Callers program.
The Caring Callers program will identify homebound, isolated adults and pair them with volunteer callers who will check in with them by phone three or four times a week. The aim of the program is to reduce social isolation and feelings of loneliness, and improve mental health and wellbeing. We're excited to involve some of our volunteers who have been sheltering at home recently. It will be a great way to keep our community connections strong while we are isolating to help protect the health of our vulnerable neighbors.
We will keep you posted as the program develops. There are a lot of details to work out and training will be crucial for participating volunteers. If you are interested in becoming a caring caller volunteer, or would like more information, please contact
Lauren at 471-7780 x 2.
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Tasty Tidbits
As spring begins to turn to summer and social distancing due to the coronavirus continues, many of us are spending extra time in our backyard gardens. Whether it's planting flowers, growing vegetables, or tending to long-established annuals, home gardens can offer a respite from a stressful news cycle and all the time we spend inside. A quarantine garden can give people something to nurture during a time of high stress.
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Roasted potatoes, radishes & fennel with lemon brown butter sauce!
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The first full week of June is National Gardening Week sponsored by National Garden Clubs. No matter where you live, the National Garden Clubs have garden ideas that will work for you, from instructions on how to begin a pollinator garden to transforming an existing garden into a drought-resistant xeriscape.
Vegetable gardens are still the most popular. Homegrown tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, green chile, and other vegetables are, for many, the rewards of a long tradition of spring and summer gardening. In Santa Fe, early spring greens like kale and chard give way to delicate summer treats like cherry tomatoes and zucchini. The Kitchn has a great list of thirteen recipes using spring vegetables.
For those planning on a large tomato bounty later in the summer, take a look at Bon Apetit's slideshow of tomato recipes that will last you through the summer and beyond.
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Volunteer Opportunities
Kitchen Angels is seeking volunteers for the following tasks:
Substitute delivery drivers (4:30 - 6:30pm)
Kitchen volunteers (AM & PM shifts)
Mask sewers to keep up our supply of masks for volunteers
Bakers
- Any day Monday - Friday, 10-12 or 2-4
- Must be able to handle entire process from cooking to cleaning to portioning
- If you want to use your own recipe, speak with Joe first
Here is our current set of criteria, which we are using to screen all volunteers:
- No out of state travel by plane, train, bus or automobile in the past 14 days for you or anyone living in your household or anyone with whom you are in close contact.
- Practicing social distancing, mask-wearing and hand-washing/sanitizing as recommended by the CDC and NM Department of Health.
- Not volunteering at other organizations or working in "high risk" facilities (emergency room, grocery store) where you are in contact with five or more individuals over the course of the day.
- No volunteering until 17 days after the cessation of symptoms if exposed to someone with cold or flu-like symptoms.
- If you have been sick, no volunteering until:
- Three days after resolution of fever without fever-reducing medication and improvement of respiratory symptoms (cough, shortness of breath);
- Or...negative results of FDA Emergency Use Authorized molecular assay for COVID-19 from at least two consecutive nasopharyngeal swab specimens collected ≥24 hours apart.
We know these requirements are rigorous, and they will surely change over time, but they are necessary for us to keep our vulnerable clients healthy. Thank you for your understanding!
Please pass this message along to those who may be interested in volunteering.
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Continuing Education
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Food with history - for a Juneteenth celebration
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For a lot of Americans Memorial Day marks the beginning of the summer season and Labor Day marks the end. Yet another important holiday falls in the middle of the summer: Juneteenth. Juneteenth, (which is a combination of June and nineteenth), is an annual celebration of the end of slavery in the United States. On June 19, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger announced to the people of Texas that the war was over and enslaved people were now free. Juneteenth, also called Emancipation Day, is celebrated by African American communities all over the United States with picnics and festivals, much like the Fourth of July. Since this summer's Juneteenth celebrations will likely be canceled or curtailed, here is an interactive tour from the National Museum of African American History and Culture highlighting the history of Juneteenth.
Summer outdoor meals are frequently dominated by barbeque.
But if people are looking for brisket, they might be out of luck. The United States meat supply is under immense stress because of the coronavirus. Meatpacking plants have had some of the worst outbreaks of Covid-19 in the country. Since
we might not be able to get our hamburgers and hotdogs for summer cookouts, it may be time to consider that America's obsession with meat-based protein might be unfounded. People have been eating much more protein than they actually need for good nutrition. Most men and women only need two palm sized portions of protein (fish, meat,
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A kitchen pantry dream come true!
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nuts) per day to stay healthy. Click here for an article on the topic.
We might want to start throwing some of our summer vegetables on the grill right now instead of chicken or burgers.
With the recommendation that we only go to the grocery store once a week during the pandemic, grocery shopping is becoming more tedious and more difficult than ever. For those living alone, cooking for one can also be lonely. Bon Appetit has a great guide on meal prepping for one, but never eating the same thing twice.
The New York Times also has a helpful guide for how to stock and organize your pantry.
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Community Connections...
Kitchen Angels has an opportunity to assist with more than meals. We are currently receiving City of Santa Fe
Flex Funds to help clients in certain circumstances. We have helped many families with rent and mortgage payments, replaced a rotting wheelchair ramp, taken a toddler safely to daycare so his mother could have some much needed time to rest, and paid past-due electric bills. These funds have come at a time when so many need so much. We're grateful for the opportunity to assist those in need.
If you have noticed a dangerous situation in a client's home or know of a need, call
Jeanette and let her know. She will follow up with the client if the request falls within the program's guidelines.
To address food insecurity during the pandemic, Santa Fe Community College, in partnership with
World Central Kitchen, has been distributing meals to individuals in need for the past month. The
World Central Kitchen is led by world famous chef and humanitarian,
José Andrés. The partnership was developed by New Mexico resident
Robert Egger, who is serving as a food security advisor to Santa Fe Mayor,
Alan Webber.
Santa Fe Community College Foundation is supporting the program, which will help feed Santa Fe Public Schools and SFCC students and their families as well as local communities. Working with city and county governments, the project will identify additional distribution sites where there is pressing economic need. The program distributes meals Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 2-4pm and will last through
June 19th.
Click here for a map of the food distribution locations.
Here's a good resource for you to share if you or someone you know has been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic and in need of food. The Empty Pantry Fund is set up to provide some temporary assistance to residents of Santa Fe County who have been laid off from their jobs. The assistance provides a $200 grocery gift card for qualifying individuals. Check out the website to learn who qualifies and to apply for a grocery gift card.
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Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!
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Joe K. wondering what to do with a tomatillo
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A word of thanks to to
Stan Moolenijzer of
Bosque Natural Landscaping for donating vegetable starts that we've given to our volunteers. Bosque Natural is our neighbor across the street on Industrial Road.
S
ince 1994, Bosque Natural has been "dedicated to providing Santa Fe with honest and beautiful work." They pride themselves in being a socially responsible organization and paying their workers a living wage. They work in partnership with their clients to create sustainable, inspiring, water conscious landscapes. Give them a call for all of your landscaping needs, and don't forget to thank them for their donation to Kitchen Angels!
The Kitchen Angels staff would like to thank the Board of Directors and other KA friends for
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Thank you Kitchen Angels board of directors- for keeping the staff well-fed during this time! |
purchasing us lunches during our COVID times. This simple gesture has given us time to sit, dine together (yet 6-feet apart), and talk through whatever topics are most important that day. It's nice to not have to run around town to find lunch, or make lunch the day before.
Staff have been giving their all to stay focused and attentive while the social landscape shifts beneath our feet. We extend our deepest gratitude to those individuals who are taking the time and spending the money to feed us.
We appreciate your kindness!
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Who is that masked man?
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Have you met our volunteer Matt Trujillo? He started working in the kitchen back in January of this year. Talk about a godsend! Matt is skilled in the kitchen and has been showing up for 6 or more shifts per week! Not only is he kind, congenial, and easy-going, but he is willing to jump in and attend to any task with a smile on his masked-face. Since Matt has been here, he has stepped up as a substitute for Joe when Joe takes a well-earned half-day off. We are putting him to good use while he waits to return to his job cooking at St. John's College. His mother Margaret has been assisting Kitchen Angels by sewing and donating wonderful masks. They are some of the best, and we are very grateful for how the Trujillos are making life better for all of us during this time. Thanks you two!
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Copyright © 2012. All Rights Reserved.
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