A New Community Kitchen Will Feed 500 Families a Week

A community kitchen opening next month will prepare 500 family meals a week for neighbors facing food insecurity. The kitchen, called Common Table, is taking shape inside the former fellowship hall of a South End church that closed its doors two years ago. Where congregations once gathered for potluck suppers and coffee hours, crews are now installing commercial ovens, stainless steel prep tables and a walk-in refrigerator large enough to hold a week’s worth of donated vegetables.

On a recent afternoon, the hall smelled of fresh paint and sawdust. A row of new stockpots sat on a shelf, still in their plastic wrap. A handwritten list taped to the wall laid out the first week’s menu: chicken and rice soup, vegetable lasagna, black bean chili, roasted chicken with potatoes and a hearty minestrone. Each dish, organizers say, will be packed into family-size containers and delivered to pantries, shelters and neighborhood pickup sites across the city.

Turning surplus into supper

Volunteers cook with surplus food from farms and grocery stores. Much of that food would otherwise be thrown away — not because it’s spoiled, but because it’s misshapen, close to its sell-by date or simply more than a store or farm can sell. Common Table will collect it several times a week, sort it, and turn it into meals within a day or two.

The kitchen has already signed agreements with six local farms, three grocery stores and a regional food distributor. Farmers will donate vegetables that don’t meet grocery store standards for size or appearance. Stores will donate bread, dairy, meat and produce that is still safe to eat but needs to be used quickly.

Nobody in this city should go hungry while good food goes to waste.

Rev. Daniel Price, kitchen founder

Price, who served as pastor of the church for 14 years before it closed, said the idea came to him while he was volunteering at a food pantry. “I watched a farmer bring in a truckload of carrots that he couldn’t sell because they were too crooked,” he said. “The pantry didn’t have a way to use that many carrots. And I thought, what if we had a kitchen that could turn all of that into soup?”

How it works

Common Table will operate five days a week, Monday through Friday. Each day follows roughly the same rhythm:

1. Morning pickup. A volunteer driver collects donated food from farms and stores in a refrigerated van.
2. Sorting and planning. A professional kitchen manager reviews what came in and plans the day’s recipes.
3. Cooking. Volunteers wash, chop and cook in two shifts, guided by the kitchen manager and trained shift leaders.
4. Packing. Meals are cooled safely, portioned into family-size containers and labeled with ingredients and reheating instructions.
5. Delivery. Meals go out to partner sites, including two food pantries, a family shelter, a senior center and a school-based family resource room.

Each family meal is designed to feed four people and includes a main dish and, when possible, a side of vegetables or bread. The kitchen expects to start with about 300 meals a week and reach its goal of 500 within the first three months.

Food safety comes first

Because the kitchen is serving vulnerable neighbors, food safety is a top priority. The kitchen has passed its city health inspection, and its manager, Rosa Delgado, is a certified food safety manager with more than 15 years of restaurant experience. Every volunteer will receive a short training on handwashing, safe food handling and allergy awareness before their first shift. Meals will be cooled quickly using the new blast chiller and stored at safe temperatures until delivery.

“We cook like it’s for our own families,” Delgado said. “Because these are our neighbors.”

A church hall with a new purpose

The church building closed in 2024 after its congregation, which had shrunk to about 40 members, merged with another church across town. The denomination that owns the building agreed to lease the fellowship hall to Common Table for $1 a year for the first ten years.

Renovating the kitchen cost about $340,000, paid for by a combination of private donations, a community development grant and a gift from a local family foundation. The money covered new appliances, plumbing, electrical work, ventilation, the walk-in refrigerator and a loading door for deliveries.

The rest of the church building is still empty, but Price said he hopes to eventually use the sanctuary for community dinners and cooking classes. “This building fed people for a hundred years,” he said. “We’re just keeping that going.”

Who it serves

Common Table will not serve meals directly to the public at first. Instead, it will provide food to partner organizations that already work with families in need. Those partners will distribute meals through their existing programs, which means families can get meals in places they already visit and trust.

Staff at the South End food pantry say the meals will fill an important gap. Many families who visit the pantry receive groceries but struggle to find the time, energy or equipment to cook full meals, especially parents working multiple jobs and seniors living alone.

“A bag of groceries is wonderful,” said pantry director Grace Holloway. “But for a mom who just finished a double shift, a hot meal that’s ready to go can mean everything. It means she can sit down with her kids instead of standing at the stove.”

The family shelter that will receive meals has a small kitchen but no staff cook. Its director said prepared meals will allow families staying there to eat together more often, something she said helps children feel more settled during a difficult time.

How to help

Volunteer shifts start at two hours, and no experience is needed. Common Table is looking for about 150 regular volunteers to start, and organizers say there’s a job for almost everyone.

• Kitchen volunteers wash, chop and cook under the guidance of a shift leader.
• Packing volunteers portion and label meals.
• Drivers pick up donations and deliver meals in the kitchen’s van.
• Dishwashers keep pots, pans and utensils clean, a job Price calls “the most important and least glamorous.”
• Office volunteers help with scheduling, data entry and donor thank-you notes.

Volunteers must be at least 16 years old, or 14 with a parent or guardian. Shifts run in the morning, midday and early afternoon. Groups from workplaces, schools and faith communities are welcome to sign up together.

The kitchen also accepts financial donations and donations of food storage containers, aprons and dish towels. Farms and food businesses interested in donating surplus food can contact the kitchen directly.

Opening day

Common Table will hold a public open house on the first Saturday of next month, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., with kitchen tours, volunteer sign-ups and soup samples. The first meals will go out the following Monday.

Key takeaway: By cooking with surplus food from local farms and stores, a new South End kitchen aims to feed 500 families a week — and it needs volunteers to make it happen.

Price said he expects the first week to be a little chaotic. “We’ll burn something. We’ll run out of containers. Somebody will forget the salt,” he said with a smile. “But by Friday, we’ll have fed a lot of people. That’s a good week.”