Columbia Country Recovery Kitchen was recently featured in an article by Deborah E. Lans for The Columbia Paper. Below is an excerpt from the article, “The Third Act – Older Adults Volunteering Locally”, originally published November 10, 2023, on Upstarter:
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Today, three and one-half years later, the organization is still powered by volunteers, including some 80 drivers, mostly retirees. The only paid employees are the chefs, Tommy Carlucci and Kathy Stillman. CCRK serves 1,200 meals per week and hopes to increase that number. It serves individuals as well as the Boys & Girls Club, Hudson’s Head Start programs and others, with some 30 farms donating food. Recipients are identified through social service agencies, the Sanctuary Movement and self-referral.
If anything, the need is greater today, as poverty rates have increased since the cessation of pandemic funding to individuals. Nearly 40% of county residents earn less than what is considered a “survival budget for a family of four.”
CCRK’s main funding source is individual donations, most in the range of $25-50. The first “customer” of CCRK returned two years later to make a donation of $100.
For Tommy Carlucci, CCRK’s chef, earlier work he had done at a “soup kitchen” in Stottville opened his eyes to the face of hunger in the area. He was “shocked” to see that everyone “looked like me. It wasn’t only the homeless, elderly and disabled who needed help.” The long-time chef sees his work at CCRK as his final act, and his ambition is to turn out 6,000 meals/week, which he feels would provide at least one meal/day to all those in need.
Two of CCRK’s volunteers are Steve and Helen Lobel of Austerlitz. Both retired executives had volunteered for years as mentors at the Chatham Middle School and in other community positions, but the work with CCRK was especially powerful. (Ms. Lobel has since joined the CCRK Board.) “The scope of hunger and poverty that we saw as we began to deliver food was unexpected and stunning,” according to Ms. Lobel. Moreover, the work expanded their understanding of the county, “taking us out of our usual social circle and allowing us to meet others in our community,” said Mr. Lobel.
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The story can be read in its entirety at: https://theupstater.com/the-columbia-paper/the-third-act-older-adults-volunteering-locally/