WELLFLEET — Another season has started for the 246 Community Kitchen, a nonprofit in town that dishes out weekly free meals all winter long. Not much has changed, says the kitchen’s founder, Janet Drohan: “Amy Carow’s meatloaf is still the star of the show.”
Teams of volunteers show up early on Tuesdays to start cooking, using food donated by local restaurants and sourced from the Wellfleet Food Pantry, knowing that when the sun sets at 5 p.m., 80 or more locals will arrive punctually at the United Methodist Church hungry for food and conversation.
“Janet is running out of material,” Drohan told her empty-bellied audience on the kitchen’s first night of the season, Nov. 5. After 11 years of inaugurating the dinners, Drohan said she has delegated the task of finding a joke to the team that cooks the meal on any given Tuesday night. But she still gets to joke around: “Don’t blame me if you don’t like it — blame them,” Drohan said, pointing to the hard-at-work chefs in the kitchen.
The 246 Kitchen is open every Tuesday evening at 5 p.m. through the end of April. It rarely misses a week, except on Christmas and New Year’s Eve or if a snowstorm imperils the journey to Main Street. “If the school is closed, we’re closed. If the school is open, we’re open,” Drohan said. Last year, a midday storm made them cancel at the last minute. “We had to give all the turkey tetrazzini to the police and fire departments,” Drohan said.
After Drohan finishes her pre-meal speech, she calls tables up one by one to fill their plates. “I don’t take bribes for calling tables,” she tells her audience. This week’s menu is more casual than usual, but still includes little extras: there are cheesesteak subs, and the fried pickles come with dipping sauce. For dessert, there is apple pie or crumb cake. But only if you “go see Arlene” first, suggests Drohan. Arlene Myers McKim is a Barnstable County visiting nurse who comes to the 246 dinners monthly to administer blood sugar and blood pressure tests to those who want them.
The Wellfleet contingent of AmeriCorps Cape Cod, a federal volunteer program for young professionals to gain experience in municipal projects and nonprofit work, can always be found at a table in the back of the room. They usually return to the house they share with trays of leftover food that will feed them for days to come. “They keep us fed, so we can’t complain,” said Henry Torpey, the program supervisor.
In the front of the room, the women at table seven are so devoted to the weekly dinners that they carry on the tradition after the season ends. “We miss it in the summer,” said Diane Greene. They began planning weekly summer meals to replicate the community kitchen, including a placard that reads “seven” in the center of the round table. “The only difference is we drink wine with the dinner,” Greene said.
Drohan purchases produce from Stop & Shop with the donations she receives at the weekly dinners. The rest of the food comes from restaurants that close in the off-season as well as donations from the Wellfleet Food Pantry.
There’s news from that front: after months of searching for a new temporary home, the pantry has found one at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, according to a press release. It will be operating out of a trailer in the church’s parking lot starting Dec. 9 until a permanent home is built for it next to the Adult Community Center. The pantry aims to raise $1.5 million to fund construction costs once it has nailed down the precise location on the town’s land. The organization’s volunteers have said that the pantry needs a new location because its current home in the Grace Chapel can no longer handle the growing demand for the pantry, which has climbed to 203 families.
Mustard Seed Kitchen is the community group in town that provides a “meals-on-wheels” style program that delivers two meals per week. Pat Synoradzki, who runs the organization, said that with 30 clients that group cannot take on more. Those looking to sign up can go through the council on aging to get on a waitlist, she said. She is looking for more volunteers to help expand the organization’s reach.
The idea behind these community programs is simple, Drohan said: “Help those who need help.” But through the force of mutual aid and care, they have become much more than just a free meal. “We are very grateful for what we have come to mean for the community, to be a gathering place in the winter,” she said.
Wellfleet
246 Community Kitchen
Dinner on Tuesdays at 5 p.m. Free. Everyone is welcome.
Wellfleet United Methodist Church, 246 Main St.
Wellfleet Food Pantry
Open Mon. and Wed. 2 to 6 p.m., Thurs. 10 a.m. to noon.
Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church parking lot, 2282 Rt. 6 (starting Dec. 9).
Mustard Seed Kitchen
Delivery of two hot meals, on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.
508-349-2049.