Meredith home cook pivots after being reported to state for serving free meals

MEREDITH — For the past three years, Katherine Sorell has provided free, home-cooked meals to anyone in need, no questions asked, out of her farm stand at Restoration Acres. Someone anonymously reported Sorell's charitable meals to the state's Department of Health and Human Services last week, forcing her to rethink and adjust her operation.

Sorell makes home-cooked meals and baked goods from scratch, and sells them out of a farm stand near her home. For those who can't afford it, the food is free, and she tends to make big batches so she has extra to donate.

“I love to do it and I'm a decent home cook. First it was soup and bread then it became casseroles. I have a few families that pretty much count on me. I keep my garage open 24 hours a day so they never have to ask me, or answer any questions and feel uncomfortable,” Sorell said. “They don't ever have to feel like they're embarrassed, because it is embarrassing to not be able to make ends meet.”

Sorell began her farm stand six years ago, but started making free meals during the COVID-19 pandemic. She came up with the idea of serving anyone in need, no questions asked, after years of working in the Laconia Salvation Army soup kitchen and teaching cooking classes at Belknap House.

“There's a lot of resources for homeless people, but there's not a lot of resources for people that are blue-collar workers that are making enough, but they still need help,” Sorell said. “Especially not now.”

Sorell has worked remotely for 16 years, allowing her ample access to her home kitchen, and to take care of her son. Over time, Sorell was able to expand her operation, moving up from just soup and bread to cookies and larger meals.

“At the start of COVID, I was doing probably two deliveries of soup and bread to probably five families a week,” Sorell recalled. “Now, I would say it's more like I'm putting out probably enough meals to feed 10 families a week, and it's gone by the end of the weekend.”

After the anonymous tipster filed a complaint about the farm stand to the state, a health inspector with DHHS Food Protection, who Sorell identified as “Gary,” contacted her. He said there was a law that limits the amount of food someone can donate from their home kitchen.

“If you're doing it more than four times a month then the biggest thing was to take the Stromboli off the menu,” Sorell recalled. “The cottage food law states you can't make and sell anything that needs to be refrigerated,” Sorell said. “I had a Stromboli on the menu. If you can't afford it, you just take it. I never thought of it as an issue but [Gary] said that needed to come off.”

Many states ban the sale of home-baked goods out of safety concerns, but New Hampshire allows the practice, with restrictions.

“There is a provision called occasional food service. They are exempt from a license,” Colleen Smith, administrator for food protection, explained. “The occasional food service event is limited to four days in a 30-day period.”

This rule was mainly designed for community meals like potlucks or first responder breakfasts.

Smith noted that she was not familiar with Sorell's case, and expressed interest in speaking with her directly to come to a better arrangement.

“If she's offering food to the public out of her home kitchen, if she's doing baked goods, jams, jellies, that's homestead,” Smith said. “When they make foods that require refrigeration, that's when they need to go to a commercial food license, but that's distinct from this charitable operation.”

With certain exceptions, producers must have a license to sell or even give away food at a certain scale. One example of a charitable operation that wouldn't need a license, Smith said, is a soup kitchen.

“Soup kitchens don't have that [four times a month] limit. They're exempt,” Smith said. “I feel that maybe this woman from Meredith fits into that soup kitchen model.”

Despite the difficulties, Sorell holds no ill will toward DHHS.

Gary “apologized multiple times, because after reading the post on Facebook, he didn't want to be 'that guy,'” Sorell said. “I can't say enough good about him. I'm not looking to ever make a stink about rules. I'm not a rebel without a cause, but I am someone that believes in doing the right thing.

"If that means people get a week's worth of food four times a month, I'll do that.”

Sorell praised her local community for their assistance with her efforts.

“I have to say, I've been completely blown away by my neighbors,” Sorell said. “The people in town, people have been so supportive. I have people bringing me containers and food to use, they help keep me going. If not for them, I couldn't afford to do it.”

For Smith, the rules are all about providing people with safe food, especially those with low incomes.

“We want to make sure food is prepped safely but also food insecurity is a serious problem,” Smith said. “We want to live within not only our framework but also be flexible when someone has good intentions at heart.”