Soulful food:Why dozens come daily to create, and enjoy, Survival Center’s free community lunches
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Jon Skoglund takes a break from his lunch to rave about the eating establishment he goes to regularly.
"I think it's the highest quality food and best variety in town," says Skoglund, 68, a resident of Ann Whalen Apartments in Amherst. "It's the best restaurant in town. You can't beat the quality and you can't beat the price or the good people who come here."
He's not talking about one of Amherst's excellent downtown restaurants. He's having lunch at the Amherst Survival Center. When he says "you can't beat the price," he's jokingly referring to the fact that it's free to everyone.
The Survival Center serves lunch to between 55 and 90 people every weekday except Wednesday. The food is almost all donated by local stores and farms and a rotating group of volunteers do the cooking and serving. The improvisational menu depends on what arrives in the trucks every morning, but there are always meat and vegetarian entrees and, this month, lots of dishes made from organic local vegetables.
Today's menu includes pot roast, chicken salad, spaghetti, barbecued tofu, deviled eggs, fruit salad, tossed salad, cooked seaweed, fresh cherries and bagels, with cake for dessert. Some of the 70 guests have come from as far away as Northampton, Springfield and Hardwick.
Organized chaos
Supervising the organized chaos that is lunch at the Survival Center is Linda Brooks, who worked in the kitchen of a local nursing home for 17 years.
"The guests are very appreciative," she says. "This lunch is not just for nutrition, it's for socializing too, getting to know someone new. And it's about choice. If you don't have many choices in your life and can choose from a beautiful buffet cooked with heart and soul, it's amazing. It gives people something they can look forward to."
The lunch provides unexpected benefits for volunteers, too.
Bob Weiner, an Amherst jazz musician who has recruited his friends to provide live music to accompany the Thursday lunches, says that "in a pay-per-view world, it's really nice to crack that."
Amy Wasson of Springfield says that cooking at the Survival Center "keeps me centered" and has taught her about mass food production. Kathy Kelly of South Deerfield says, "I think you have to give back. I'm trying to keep my karma."
Food flows in
Between 9 and 10 a.m., trucks arrive at the center at 1200 North Pleasant St. in North Amherst, delivering between 700 and 1,000 pounds of food a day.
The donating businesses include Antonio's Pizza, Atkins Farms Country Market, Henion's Bakery, Whole Foods Market and Panera Bread. Much of it would wind up in Dumpsters if it weren't for the Survival Center, Brooks says. Trucks also deliver fresh vegetables from local farms.
Brooks has usually defrosted frozen chicken or hamburger to give substance to the menu, but it's up to the volunteers to decide what to do with it.
"If we have a lot of broccoli, we'll do chicken and broccoli," says Tracey Levy, the Survival Center's program director. "The vegetarian entrees are usually eggs or beans, but if tofu arrives that day, we'll have tofu."
Whatever food the cooks aren't using that day goes to the free distribution area, which opens at 11 a.m. The guests clutch cloth and plastic bags as they form a line. Many of them are from countries other than the U.S., and one woman has a sleeping baby attached to the front of her body.
Volunteers Kathy Kelly and Heather Lowing greet each person cheerily. "The peppers are really fresh," Kelly says to one guest. "How about another squash? Do you want an eggplant?" The guest responds, "No, but I'll take a tomato, and maybe some celery."
Lowing distributes the fruit, and the guests can also take home free bread, eggs, yogurt, cream cheese and sandwiches. The Survival Center also runs an emergency food pantry that offers non-perishable items.
Lisa Foley of Belchertown has picked up food to take home but isn't staying for lunch. "Me and my husband have medical bills, and we don't get any assistance because he makes too much money," she says.
Space transformed
At 11:40, the food distribution area is transformed into a cramped lunchroom, as volunteers set up tables and chairs and put drinks out. Brooks says she's looking forward to moving in a few years to the Survival Center's new location, up the street at the former Rooster's restaurant, where there will be seating for 70 diners.
Today, like most days, some guests will have to eat their lunches outside.
The volunteers and some staff members go through the lunch line at 11:45, so they can yield their places to the guests, who start forming a line at noon.
Heidi Sousse of Northampton has brought two friends from the city across the river to have lunch at the Survival Center.
"If you come here every day it's open, you can save $120 a month on your food budget," she says between bites. "For some people, this is all they have."
Emily Hamilton of Amherst is both a volunteer and a guest, keeping records of who the guests are while also eating. "I don't know any other place in the Valley that has something as nice as this," she says.
At 12:10, Linda Brooks tells the cooks that there's still a long line of guests waiting for lunch, so they can make sure they don't run out of food.
Guest William Wang sums it up: "Very good service, very good system. Better than a restaurant. You can't find it any better than here."
Philosophy of helping
At 12:25, Cheryl Zoll, the center's executive director, is one of the last people to go through the lunch line. She sits down with the guests, choosing this time because "it feels better to know that everyone has what they need," she says.
Like a CEO talking to customers, Zoll learns about each individual's life situation while eating lunch with them, and gets a better sense of what services the center needs to provide. She sometimes refers guests to the Survival Center's free medical clinic or to local human-service agencies - or learns that someone can make an incredible soup.
"The whole philosophy of the Survival Center is a community where people help each other out," she says. "This is a way of bringing people into the enterprise. We're a place where everyone has something to offer."
While most Amherst institutions see a decline in demand in the summer, the number of people at lunch at the Survival Center increases, Zoll says. That's probably because low-income parents whose children qualify for free or reduced-price breakfasts and lunches in the public schools don't have that nutritional option for them in the summer, she explains.
Zoll is working with Weiner, the recruiter of musicians, on a grant that could provide a stipend for them. He has brought a wide variety of local musicians to the Thursday lunches, including Tony Vacca, Salvatore Macchia, John Sheldon and Becky Miller. He's hoping to recruit music students from Amherst Regional High School to come to the Survival Center to perform at lunchtime this coming year.
"I'm usually looking for quality music, but this is different, this is about people sharing what they do, and that's more important than it being great music," Weiner says. "Sometimes, people will walk by us and you'll see this huge smile on their faces and they break into a spontaneous dance."
Jan Eidelson, president of the Survival Center's board, isn't at lunch today. But she's over in the "free store" collecting plastic hangers that held clothes that have just been picked up.
"Lunch here provides more than food," she says. "It provides community. Sometimes it's someone's only hot meal of the day. It's breaking bread together and sharing stories over the table and learning different languages from the person across from you. Local businesses give to us so we can give it back to the community."
