Nancy Travers, left, and Paula Barbosa have a Fresh Meal Program lunch Monday at Millers River Apartments. (Photo: Sue Reinert)
As Cambridge Housing Corporation modernized its buildings for the elderly and disabled from 2013, it installed an unusual feature: commercial kitchens in four of its large developments. These four of his shiny kitchens were rarely used, and to this day they allow residents to cook and reheat their daily meals on site and live there at an affordable price.
The authority's Fresh Meals program last month began serving lunch Monday through Friday at Millers River in East Cambridge, LBJ Apartments in Cambridgeport, Burns Apartments in North Cambridge, and will also begin serving breakfast at Manning Apartments in Central Square. It started. CHA has partnered with Stock Pot Malden, a Malden company that provides other services in its community for budding entrepreneurs in the food business who need a place to cook or help start a company. The company operates two commercial kitchens.
One such entrepreneur, Edwin Rivera Cosme, is the executive chef of the CHA program. On a recent Monday, he stood behind a long table in Millers River's community room, handing out Italian sandwiches, Greek salad and chicken broccoli Alfredo pasta to a line of residents. My assistant Jacob Pineda helped me out. Rivera Cosme was preparing meals in a commercial kitchen in Millers River. He delivered two lunches to his site, Burns and his other LBJ in the hotel's serving pan.
“It's amazing,” said resident Nancy Travers, who ate the pasta. “These guys are doing a great job,” said her friend Paula Barbosa. Travers said some residents run out of money to buy food by the end of the month. “It doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it helps,” she said.
Commercial kitchen in Millers River. (Photo: Sue Reinert)
Their only complaint is that there is too much chicken. Travers and Barbosa said residents celebrating Lent will eat fish on Fridays this month, but chicken will be on the menu every day. “I have a cookbook: 365 Ways to Cook Chicken,” Travers joked. She said she and Barbosa knew their reliance on chicken was a “budget issue.” Allyah Landestoy, her manager at CHA Projects, where she led and now oversees the Fresh Meals program, agreed.
Residents of CHA developments for seniors and people with disabilities may already have access to food under programs such as Meals on Wheels through Somerville-Cambridge Senior Services and grocery delivery from local food pantries. be. However, the food is delivered to your apartment rather than the community room, where you can eat with others.
Travers welcomed the social aspect of Fresh Meals, interrupting the interview several times to wave and say hello to other residents, or to say “Maria!” to a friend who loves Greek salad. '', he said. Greek salad! “Maria replied with her thumbs up.
Still, many in the Millers River meal line took away their portions in containers. Only a dozen people ate in the community room, and the total in February was modest at 885 lunches and 111 breakfasts, Landestoy said.
CHA's deal with Stock Pot Malden promises to reduce the agency's costs for the program after the first year, with the first year receiving federal funding from the city of Cambridge to offset the effects of the pandemic. It will be funded with $750,000 in Rescue Plan Act funds. . “The pandemic has been particularly difficult for at-risk populations, such as the elderly and people with disabilities, and has led to increased food insecurity and isolation among this population,” CHA said in a memo about the program.
To reduce costs for the authority, an agreement with Stock Pot Malden allows the Malden company (in this case Stock Pot chef Rivera Cosme) to use Millers River's kitchen for purposes other than CHA meals. , Rivera Cosmetics is now able to sell food to its own customers. day care centers etc.
Work at Chef in Somerville
Edwin Rivera Cosme, right, and his assistant Jacob Pineda serve in Millers River on Monday. (Photo: Sue Reinert)
Revenue from external sales of the Stock Pot offsets the costs of the CHA program. For example, Rivera Cosmetics' salaries and other overhead costs will come from outside sales starting this year, according to a contract memo submitted Nov. 28 before CHA commissioners approved the agreement. Rivera Cosme said Monday that his Somerville-based catering and food delivery company, The Freakin' Puerto Ricans Fusion Food, already has two daycare customers in Brockton and Mattapan, and that “food truck “is currently under construction,” he said. Previously, he said, he was unable to operate a food truck due to state red tape.
“Our goal is to have childcare facilities, schools and nursing homes,” he said. He says he chose the “fusion'' label because “I didn't want it to be boring.'' Having worked in so many places, I started mixing things up. ”
Residents will be asked to pay $2 for their meals, but they won't be kicked out if they don't. The staff is on site and he can eat a meal for $4. CHA will cover the difference between meal costs and profits.
The company behind the program
Stock Pot was founded in 2014 as a for-profit company with a social mission to provide affordable meals to “economically disadvantaged” children, seniors, and families. Provide meals and help non-white and ethnically and culturally diverse entrepreneurs start their own businesses. and improve Malden's economy. The company is owned by a “social angel impact fund” called Co-Creation Ventures, which supports local shared kitchens to help “local communities of under-resourced food startups” improve the quality of food served. We wanted to demonstrate that it is possible to improve On its website, Stockpot talks about “underserved” communities, including schools, seniors and families.
Stock Pot Malden has two commercial kitchens in Malden and rents out space at below-market rents to a diverse range of targeted food startups. It also offers a two-year incubator program that allows selected entrepreneurs to use their kitchens for their own businesses and provides income to selected entrepreneurs who agree to provide meals to Stock Pot's school and senior center clients. Guarantee. The company says it and its partners have served 3 million meals during the pandemic.
Landestoy said the housing authority wants to expand the on-site meal program to residential areas for seniors and people with disabilities that don't have commercial kitchens, as well as family housing areas.
