All Over Albany

Oakwood Soul Café freezer

Project: A freezer for the Oakwood Soul Café.

Who: Oakwood Soul Café

Short bio
The Oakwood Ave Presbyterian Church stopped meeting as a congregation in 2010, but the AA group, the renting band, the small Hispanic church wanted to be allowed to stay, asked that the doors stay open. The Albany Presbytery said that could happen if one of the former church members, Linda O'Malley, would be responsible for the place. From that time on, Linda kept the doors open to the members of the community who needed the food pantry, who met with the AA group, who needed to discuss the neighborhood, as well as those neighbors using the space for birthday parties and baby showers. Soon other groups began using the space for a lecture series, sustainability discussion and Troy Shares, a time share club. In the winter of 2013, Linda began meeting with a few committed volunteers to discuss forming a board and formalizing the existence of a new organization in the old church: Oakwood Community Center. Linda became the organization's Executive Director, and under her leadership, Oakwood has had a growing impact on Troy's North Central neighborhood and the broader community. In particular, the Oakwood Soul Café is bringing people together in the kitchen and around the tables in the old dining hall, to enjoy healthy, environmentally sustainable meals and each other's company with amazing, growing popularity.

A description of the proposed project
The concept of a Troy-based Oakwood Soul Café developed from Linda's research on pay-what-you-can cafés across the country. It is based on that model with a requested $3.00 donation (if possible), but many folks see it as a good will gesture to pay it forward to someone else or to a future meal donating a bit more! The meal is prepared by a rotating group of volunteer chefs every second Monday of the month. The event aims to bring diverse neighbors together over a low cost, nutritious meal and serves an average of 80+ people each month. Soul Café meals are typically prepared on a budget of $150, relying, in part, on "culled" produce, the food that would otherwise be thrown away by grocery stores and farmers market vendors-- and the donations of kind local businesses who support the Soul Café effort-- Honest Weight Food Co-op, The Placid Baker, and DeFazio's. The bruised or spoiled portions of fruits and veggies go into the compost, but all the "good stuff" needs to be processed, and quickly, either into delicious soup or stews... or frozen for future meals.

Therefore despite the wonderful monthly dinners that come of a good deal of hard work and a bit of magic, the problem has become freezer space. There is enough good cull to process for one or maybe two meals, but there is no space to store frozen produce for 6 months out or to store some particularly abundant fruit or vegetable until mid-winter when such a flavor is exactly what we are looking for. Harvest time is a heartbreaker when everything needs to be processed and stored! The typical freezer at the top of the fridge and the 3.5 cu ft. little deep freeze cannot do enough to help the Café provide more wonderful dinners across the seasons.

How would the grant money help?
Despite the wonderful monthly dinners that come of a good deal of hard work and a bit of magic, the problem has become freezer space. There is often enough good cull to process for multiple meals, but there is no freezer space to store the produce. Oakwood's volunteer chefs would love to be able to store some particularly abundant fruit or vegetable until mid-winter when such a flavor is exactly what is needed. Fall harvest time is a heartbreaker when everything needs to be processed and stored, with no place to put it! The typical freezer at the top of the fridge and the 3.5 cu ft little deep freeze in Oakwood's kitchen simply cannot hold enough. With a $1,500 grant, Oakwood could purchase a commercial freezer to enable the Soul Café to serve delicious, low-cost community meals throughout the year.