Still coping without a kitchen

Giovanna Ketcham unpacks a Meals on Wheels delivery for a Silver Circle lunch.
By 10:30 on a Wednesday morning, the debris from the Silver Circle’s morning snack has been removed from the dining room at the Senior Activity Center, and the kitchen counters have been sanitized for the second time that day in anticipation of the Meals on Wheels (MOW) delivery.
Giovanna Ketcham, a Suffolk County-licensed food handler appointed by the Town Council as Silver Circle cook earlier this year, is slipping on her rubber gloves. Other staff members, per protocol, have vacated the kitchen.
Karin Bennett, coordinator of the Shelter Island Nutrition Program, arrives with the food in a container insulated for both hot and cold. Gio records the temperatures in her log book; the entrées go in the pre-heated oven if they are to be served warm; the butter, milk, juice and dessert to the refrigerator. If soup is on the menu, it will be reheated in the microwave. All temperatures are re-checked before serving.
Sounds easy and it is. Program director Lois Charls no longer has to do the monthly shopping at BJ’s in Riverhead. The actual cooking and salad-making Gio and Diane Anderson did are a thing of the past. But club members do miss the baked fish dinners, the meat loaf and the roast pork, some of the favorites of the pre-MOW days.
“The MOW’s menu is fine,” reflected Gio. “The club members are tolerating the change [very well],” added Lois. For Angela Corbett the increased numbers in the Wednesday MOW numbers are no problem. She is the Nutrition Program’s Wednesday and Friday chef at the Shelter Island Presbyterian Church. “I regularly prepare 20 to 25 meals. What’s another 12 to 15?” So we continue to cope without being able to cook in our own kitchen.
Is there an end in sight? Chris Lewis who has served as liaison to SCAC during her many years on the Town Council says, “We (the Town) have the money from a Community Development Block Grant. Now we are waiting for the permitting process to begin.” The original estimate to bring the kitchen up to the Suffolk County Department of Health’s code was $9,000. The sink, the dishwasher and the refrigerator must be replaced; the stove must be vented and a hand-washing sink installed. It is important to remember that the Senior Activity Center is an emergency shelter for Island seniors.
So let the permitting process begin. We’d like to be able to cook for the Silver Circle by March!