FALMOUTH, Trelawny – The group has been dubbed the “Kitchen of Love” and the name is fitting.

It’s the tag that has stuck to several senior citizens in this rural town who provide lunch once per week for about 100 indigent persons.

Now, with the $60,000 refrigerator that the Trelawny Returning Residents Association recently donated, they hope to help even more people.

The refrigerator was presented by Estella Grant, the president of the association, to Dahlia Magnus and Euleitha Bennett. They are the first vice-president and manager, respectively, of ‘Kitchen of Love’. The donation was made at the Kitchen’s offices at the Trelawny Parish Church.

Presenting the gift, Grant said she had heard a lot about the group since her return from England and decided to pay them a visit to learn even more.

“I think they are doing something wonderful for the parish,” she said.

She told JIS News that when she visited the group, she saw the need for the refrigerator.

“Because I am known as a beggar for things to help the less fortunate, I wrote a letter asking Appliance Traders for the refrigerator, and within a week I received the response to pick it up,” she said.

“I did this because I know that for the job they are doing, they need more volunteers, and if they could get more help to provide meals, even two days per week, that would be even more wonderful.”

Accepting the gift, Bennett -who is the main person who purchases food items for the kitchen – said the refrigerator would be utilised to help preserve the items used to prepare the meals for the indigent persons.

She pointed out that the lunches are prepared by senior citizens from six churches in the capital town.

Magnus, who is also a founding member, pointed out that the group was formed in 1984 “when a Roman Catholic nun told the president, Fay Excell, and I about a farm in the area where a lot of food items were going to waste, and we thought how wonderful it would be if we could find a way of making use of the food to help needy persons”.

“We spoke to the priest, who took the idea to the Ministers’ Fraternal, and from there it was decided to start this kitchen, and all the churches in the area would participate. So a committee was named, and each church was asked to send in a list of the indigent persons they needed to help, and we started in the Presbyterian Church Hall, in February 1984,” she added.

She pointed out that the kitchen started with representatives from the Baptist, Anglican, Roman Catholic, Methodist and Presbyterian churches, and two retired cooks from the Trelawny Infirmary.

Magnus said after a month they relocated to the Anglican Church Hall, and after that accommodation proved inadequate, “we built our own kitchen at another part of the church, where we have continued until this day, feeding persons from the communities of Daniel Town, Wakefield, Duncans, Bounty Hall, Salt Marsh and Granville”.

“We have never refused anyone because the organisation is based on love and volunteerism,” she emphasised.

Magnus pointed out that food items are contributed by companies, such as Grace, Kennedy, SuperPlus Stores, and others, with good support from the churches.

She noted that the president was now a shut-in, due to an accident, “but we still hold her as the president, and she is determined that the ‘Kitchen of Love’ will last, and we are committed to the same cause”.

Mavis Morgan, a Baptist volunteer, told JIS News that it was a joy “to help prepare meals for the indigent persons, because a lot of them cannot cook it for themselves”.

An Anglican, Mavis Harrison, who has been volunteering for over eight years, said she enjoyed cooking the meals.

In addition to the preparation of meals, the volunteers ensure that the beneficiaries participate in a devotional exercise each Wednesday.

– JIS News