There's some confusion regarding Kitchen Angels' Covid protocols. Here's an update:

Nothing has changed since our last update. Please continue to fill out the travel attestation form and turn it in to Lauren after each time you leave the state.

OR

If you've been exposed to someone who tests positive for Covid:

AND

Booster vaccinations are available only for the Pfizer vaccine. The FDA will be considering Moderna and Johnson & Johnson applications for boosters mid-October. Although vaccination mandates have been established by many employers, there is currently no federal booster mandate.

Currently, the CDC recommends the following folks should receive a booster if they received their second vaccination at least six months ago:

The CDC recommends the following folks may receive a booster if they received their second vaccination at least six months ago:

Six-months after receiving a second Pfizer shot, the following individuals are now eligible for a booster:

Occupations considered "high-risk" include:

If you meet one of these criteria, you may schedule through the New Mexico Department of Health. You may also receive an invitation and event code from NMDOH and we're hearing appointments are being scheduled two-weeks out.

Kitchen Angels volunteers who had their second Pfizer vaccination on or before April 6th are now eligible for a booster.

Our Feasting with Friends events were very successful this year. . . despite the challenges Covid presented. Hosts and participants kept the events small and safe.

Volunteers Kristin & Kathy Slater-Huff went above and beyond by hosting four separate events (three dinners and a brunch). Two of the meals were Greek fare and one was a very elaborate make-your-own ramen bowl. The brunch was a make-your-own Eggs Benedict with countless options and side dishes.

Some staff and volunteers have grown pumpkins and gourds this year in their gardens. We're excited to have another root-vegetable carving contest this year. Show us your most gruesome and whimsical creations and, if you want to enter them into the competition, deliver them to Kitchen Angels no later than Monday, October 25th. Voting will occur the week of October 25-29. Prizes will be given! No need to limit yourself to a simple jack-o-lantern . . . get creative!

Kitchen Angels has November 13th reserved at Bishop's Lodge Resort for our first in-person volunteer appreciation event since Covid. Since the Delta variant has spread, requiring us to mask up and take ongoing precautions, we are not yet certain that gathering for an event is 100% safe.

Kitchen Angels has been very fortunate with not a single case of Covid spreading among our volunteers or staff while at our facility. Still, we don't want to jeopardize anyone's health or well-being so, for now, we will continue to watch and wait for the right time to gather and celebrate together. We'll decide by mid-October to either hold the in-person event for vaccinated volunteers, or go to "Plan-B."

Reserve the date and we'll keep you posted.

Renovations to the Kitchenality Back of House (or BOH as we like to call it) are steadily progressing, even through there were a few unexpected hiccups. The first was a shipping delay involving a critical item and the second was a Covid exposure involving the construction crew, putting us behind by a few weeks. Through it all, however, the project's site manager has been able to schedule additional hours to keep the project moving forward. If you’ve been on the Kitchen Angels loading dock recently, you’ve probably noticed the cuts in the asphalt. These are to accommodate foundations for a new staircase at the main loading dock and a ramp for Kitchenality’s loading dock. Completion of the Kitchenality portion of the work is only a few weeks away.

The bigger news for most volunteers will be renovations to the restrooms. Don’t worry. We’ll give everyone notice when one of the restrooms will be out of commission and one restroom will always be available while the other one is under construction. Any inconvenience will be short-term. The contractor has also been preparing for upgrades to the building’s HVAC systems. Again, we’ll keep everyone posted as things progress.

The folks with Longhorn Construction, the company doing the work, have been very respectful of our Covid protocols and have been great about giving us advance notice of any interruptions to the building’s water and electric service. They’re great partners and we’re looking forward to enjoying the upgrades they’re making to the building for many years to come.

Welcome to fall! Or, as this writer likes to call it, Pumpkin Season. Pumpkins, like all squash, are native to North America and northern Mexico and have been cultivated for almost nine thousand years. Yet the world of pumpkins is so much larger than our orange jack-o-lantern and these other pumpkin varieties make for some amazing eating. (Technically there is no botanical distinction between pumpkins and hard-skinned winter squash, so this list may include some plants that could be both pumpkins and squash.) Food 52 has a great breakdown of the different kinds of pumpkins and how to pick them out at the farmer’s market or grocery store.

Let’s start with the simplest of cooking pumpkins: the sugar pumpkin. Small, sweet, and less fibrous than the carving pumpkin, the sugar pumpkin is the perfect variety for all kinds of recipes, particularly making the puree in pumpkin pie. But you can also roast it with butter, salt, and pepper for a savory-sweet side dish; simmer and puree for an excellent soup; or mix slices with leeks and goat cheese for a delightful gratin. Click here for some recipes from Bon Appetit.

Another pumpkin to know is the Japanese pumpkin, also known as kabocha squash. Although it is a staple of Japanese cuisine, with its mix of pumpkin and sweet potato flavor and fluffy texture, this pumpkin pleases everyone. Food and Wine Magazine has nine great recipes for kabocha squash, one of which is just a simple roasting method. The skin of the kabocha squash is also edible, meaning that you spend less time preparing the squash for cooking and more time eating.

Finally, one variety of pumpkin you might not think of eating is the fairytale pumpkin. Literally a picture perfect pumpkin that looks like it’s been drawn for a storybook, the fairytale pumpkin is a French variety known for its sweet taste. Although not well known in the United States, the fairytale pumpkin can be consumed in a variety of ways, including raw! Everyone should try fairytale and leek soup this fall followed by some sweet fairytale pumpkin tartlets.

As we move into autumn, Kitchen Angels is planning for our holiday Spirit of Giving. This year, we are allowing a few small groups to wrap gifts here in the building. We will be purchasing the gift items, and then having fully vaccinated and masked volunteers spend a few hours in our warehouse gift-wrapping. The groups will be small enough that we can spread out and keep space between volunteers.

The two shift times are AM (10-12) and PM (1-3).

If you are interested in participating in a wrapping event, please contact Lauren by email with your name and preferred wrapping day. We're really looking forward to these small events! Grab your friends and neighbors for a fun way to brighten the holidays for our clients.

If you don't want to volunteer, but are interested in making a financial donation for the purchase of gifts, please contact Dwayne.

On October 11, New Mexico will honor Indigenous Peoples’ Day along with cities, such as Washington D.C. and Denver. At the Santa Fe Plaza, the city, with input from local Tribal leaders, has planned two days of celebration that including dance, music, and education. In Albuquerque, you can celebrate the day at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center with dignitaries, Native dances, a historical presentation, and artist demonstrations.

Although many cities began adopting Indigenous Peoples’ Day in lieu of Columbus Day, some might still be wondering why. Non-Indigenous Americans have been celebrating Columbus Day in one way or another since 1792, when the Columbian Order of New York City, better known as Tammany Hall, wanted to honor the “founding” of America. Yet the growth of Columbus Day as a nationally recognized holiday is due largely to the influence of Italian Americans who took pride in Columbus’s Italian heritage and Catholicism. The Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal organization, successfully lobbied for Columbus Day to become a federal holiday in 1937. In fact, Columbus Day celebrations in places like New York City are used as a way to celebrate Italian-American heritage with Catholic masses and parades, just like a saint’s day celebration.

Yet, while celebrating Italian American heritage is important, veneration of Christopher Columbus can be problematic. Sent to find a western trade route to China for the Spanish Crown, Columbus instead landed at what he named the "West Indies," now called the Bahamas. Once there, Columbus enslaved the Native population, taking some back to Spain against their will. The Spanish monarchs heard of Columbus’s actions and sent someone to investigate him. Columbus was even arrested and taken back to Spain in chains for trial.

This is one of the reasons places like New Mexico, following many South American countries, celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day to honor the cultures that European colonization destroyed. If you’ve never participated, this year might be a good year to learn more about Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

Kitchen Angels always buys amazing produce from Just The Best and other purveyors. This year we're purchasing some local produce from Tesuque Pueblo Farm.

During harvest season, we are the grateful recipients of so much donated produce from our generous community neighbors. Santa Fe Botanical Garden brings a variety of bounty through the summer and well into the fall. Barbara Billings and Jeff Grundmann of Farming Artists have kept us supplied with tomatoes cucumbers, and cabbage. As they wait for final permitting before selling commercially, Mary & Andrew Neighbour of Desert Verde have donated loads of aquaponically-grown lettuce to Kitchen Angels. Volunteer Nancy Hammack collects tomatoes, herbs, cucumbers and more from her friend at Isis F. Organic Farms. Rose Tourjne comes in every week with edible flowers, herbs, peppers, and more.

All of the cooked vegetable peels and fruit trimmings go to the Master Gardeners and Reunity Resources. The scraps eventually become compost, which builds the soil and gives life to the next batch of nutrient-rich fruits and vegetables.

October 2nd is National Custodial Worker Day and we want to acknowledge the people who keep Kitchen Angels clean and tidy. Johnny Boucher cleans the kitchen daily, and we all know how dirty it can get after cooking 200 meals! Evan Shover tends to the rest of the building three days a week. His attention to detail is second to none. Once a month we have a professional service come in and do a deep clean of the kitchen. Kitchen Angels has never failed an inspection because of our high standards and the excellent work by our custodians. Our clean building is often used as the gold-standard for kitchen cleanliness.

Next time you see Evan or Johnny, remember to thank them for their hard work and dedication.

It's been a while since we showered love on our delivery prep teams, and they are so very deserving. Our fifteen permanent volunteers and eight substitute or temporary volunteers facilitate quite a bit in the three-plus hours they're here for a shift. There are quite a few moving-parts to the process and a lot of double checking to ensure accuracy. Client rosters are confirmed, entree checklists prepared, and each food item that goes into a meal bag is carefully selected. Take this and multiply it by 100 and you get the picture.

These folks remember which clients have what allergies, and how to look for birthday notifications on a client slip so they can give a special cupcake. The volunteers find and correct mistakes, and hustle when the drivers all arrive at the same time. There's hardly a curve ball thrown that these volunteers can't handle. Thank you all for your dedication, attention to detail, and good humor.