Published: 8/12/2020 12:59:38 PM
GREENFIELD — The annual Harvest Supper celebration will go on despite the pandemic, but this year it will be a walk-up or drive-thru meal, rather than a gathering on the Greenfield Common.
The Stone Soup Cafe will host the 16th annual community meal with local produce for hundreds of people on Aug. 23, with two other events happening at the same time: an online auction and a livestreamed concert by Grammy-nominated local musician Seth Glier.
Stone Soup Cafe Executive Director and Chef Kirsten Levitt said meals will be available for pickup on the common between 4:30 and 6 p.m. that day, with limited delivery options for those who can’t make it downtown. Diners can enjoy the dinner from the safety of their homes while bidding on auction items and listening to the concert.
While the annual supper has been free to all who participated in years past, Levitt said this year there is a suggested donation of $12 per meal, which she said is restaurant quality. The money will help support Stone Soup Cafe’s continued work.
“When Stone Soup took over the event five years ago, we honored the original name (the Free Harvest Supper) and that it was free,” Levitt said. “We started getting a lot of feedback, though, and some people were saying they didn’t need a free meal, that they’d like to pay and help us out.”
Levitt said the annual community meal is not just about feeding the hungry, but about bringing everyone in the community together for one evening, though this year that can’t happen.
“Farmers throughout the area are sharing their bounty with us, and we want to share the meals we make with their produce and products,” she said. “People want to help sustain our mission.”
Stone Soup Cafe offers a pay-what-you-can meal every Saturday from noon to 1:30 p.m. at All Souls Church. It also currently offers a food pantry at the same time.
Levitt said some favorites return to the Harvest Supper, including blueberry wheat berry salad, pesto potato salad and turkey peach salad. All meals are gluten-free, and there are meat, vegan and vegetarian choices.
Bidder registration for the auction begins on Aug. 20, when the auction goes live. Tickets for the Seth Glier concert are $25, and those who purchase tickets will receive an emailed link to the livestreamed event they can watch when they return home with their meals.
After taking a hiatus in 2016, the town’s Free Harvest Supper was revived by a group of dedicated residents and has been spearheaded by Levitt ever since. The community meal was started in 2005 by Juanita Nelson as a way to celebrate the local harvest and encourage people to eat locally grown food. Between its 10th and 11th year, Nelson died, so the 11th year was a memorial for her at the end of the year, instead of the supper. Levitt and others tried to revive the community meal without much success at first, so that first year after Nelson’s death, people brought their own food for a picnic-style event on the common.
Beginning in late March of 2017, a group of organizers came together, holding meetings to plan the event it held that August.
For more information or to order a dinner and/or concert tickets, visit thestonesoupcafe.org. With questions or comments, email info.thestonesoupcafe@gmail.com
Reach Anita Fritz at 413-772-9591 or afritz@recorder.com.