OK Kitchen in Albion will start adding frozen meals this Thursday to help people on weekends

Provided photo: The diversity club at Albion High School on Feb. 8 works in the kitchen prepping for the meal on Feb. 9 that would be served at the Orleans Koinonia Kitchen, which serves a meal on Thursdays from 4 to 5:30 p.m. at Harvest Christian Fellowship at 560 East Ave.

ALBION – The Orleans Koinonia Kitchen, which has been serving about 250 meals on Thursdays, will expand its efforts beginning this week.

Faith Smith, the kitchen’s director, said the OK Kitchen will start offering bags of food and an extra frozen meal.

“Our goal is to provide at least 4 days’ worth of food through one visit to the Orleans Koinonia Kitchen,” Smith said. “During Covid the government provided extra food stamps for many households including our seniors. As of March 1, that will be ending, leaving many households that were already struggling to feed themselves and their families to figure out how to stretch a dollar to feed everyone especially with the ever-increasing food prices.”

Smith said a new freezer purchased by David Mitchell of Mitchell Funeral Homes will be used to store soups, stews, chilis and other premade meals. Those meals will then be given out on Thursdays in addition to the regular weekly meal served at the kitchen from 4 to 5:30 p.m.

The plan beginning this Thursday will be to offer the usual eat-in meal, and now an additional to-go meal, a bag of food for at least another meal to be made at home, and a frozen cup of soup, stew, chili or pre-made meal that will include a biscuit, roll, bread or crackers (depending on the item) and a bagged dessert.

“All this is being done with the support and dedication from our community supporters, volunteers and donors,” Smith said.

The OK Kitchen started on June 2 at Harvest Christian Fellowship and served about 7,000 meals in the first seven months.

Smith said there are many supporters of the kitchen including several of the local churches including full support from the Medina Area Association of Churches (MAAC) and Pastors Aligned for Community Transformation (PACT).

Other contributors include Albion and Medina Lions Club, Albion Rotary Club, Albion Subway, Albion Central School teachers and students, The Knights of Columbus, Heritage Wind, SVD, Emma Reed Webster Foundation, Village of Albion employees, Albion Merchants Association, Oak Orchard Neighborhood Association, Albion Elks Lodge, Orleans VFW, Orleans County United Way, Mitchell Funeral Homes, Morrison Realty, Hu-Lane Farms, Burgio’s Hair Salon, Generations Bank, Cobblestone Federal Credit Union, Oak Orchard Chiropractic, Busy Buddies, GCASA, Take Form, Suburban Electric and many other private donations from community members.

For more information contact Smith at okkitchen2022@gmail.com, or the check the OK Kitchen website or Facebook page.