'We want to take care of our community'

MEREDITH — Here’s some good news: During this coronavirus crisis, people are making extra special efforts — in ways big and small — to help each other.

Around the area, individuals, groups, and organizations are doing their part to provide a bite to eat or full meals to those who are on the front lines of the crisis or those who are struggling with its economic impact.

Responding to the hardships that many have experienced since the pandemic hit in mid-March, three people started Be Our Guest, a weekly free-meal program which is being run from the Meredith Community Center.

On Thursday of last week, people in 31 cars drove to the Community Center where they each received a complete dinner — enough to feed four people.

The hope is for twice as many cars to show up this Thursday, said Chris Kelly, who organized and started the effort along with Ken Choice, owner of Ellacoya Barn and Grille in Gilford, and a third person who Kelly said wishes to remain anonymous.

Kelly, who owns the RE/MAX Bayside real estate agency, hopes the initiative will be able to feed between 600 and 800 people each week — or 200 dinners. The dinners are being brought out to the waiting cars between 4:30 and 6:30 p.m.

So far Be Our Guest has received enough donations to provide dinners for seven weeks. The Meredith Rotary Club has donated $4,500. The other donations have been made anonymously, Kelly said.

“We hope the word is out,” Kelly said about the program.

Be Our Guest is just one example of local efforts to provide food for those in need or who are on the front lines of the fight against the coronavirus.

In Laconia, the Looney Bin Bar & Grill has been giving away complete meals every Wednesday since the end of last month. Besides the meals, they have also been handing out food staples, such as eggs, milk, cereal and bread.

Osteria Poggio in Center Harbor has been helping those in need for the past 10 weeks. Early on, when the restaurant was closed, it was providing free meals two nights a week. Owner Kaylon Sweets (“aka Sweets,” he tells a reporter) said they gave away 3,500 meals to 1,500 families before he stopped counting. Now they are providing free meals for those who call ahead any day the restaurant is open, currently Wednesdays through Saturdays.

The Boys & Girls Club in Laconia has also been providing free meals for about two months. The meals are available Mondays through Fridays from 4 to 6 p.m., according to Jim Holmes, branch director of the club on North Main Street, across from Opechee Park.

Holmes calculates that the club has so far handed out more than 5,000 meals. Anyone who needs a meal can get one, he said. Club workers bring the meals out people's cars.

“We average about 120 meals a night; very rarely is the number less than 100,” he said.

“We are doing what we can do to help those in need,” said Be Our Guest’s Kelley, adding that part of the puzzle is  “how to figure what the need is and to find out who needs food.”

The Thursday meals are being prepared in the Meredith Community Center kitchen by workers from the Ellacoya Barn and Grille.

Kelly said the group is especially grateful to Meredith town officials for allowing the center, which has been closed to the public since the end of March, to be used for the program. He said the group has been working with local churches, schools, and welfare offices to make more people aware of the program.

Looney Bin’s owner, Michelle Watson, said the free meals and groceries at her restaurant will be available on Wednesdays through the end of the month.

She said numerous contributions have made the endeavor possible. Some of the donations have come from her customers, and others from members of the community at-large.

Likewise, John Morin of My Coffee House in Laconia said that generosity of customers and others have made it possible for him to provide free sandwich platters to first-responders and health-care workers in the immediate Laconia area.

Earlier this week Morin said he had delivered five platters so far.

“It’s been crazy,” he said.

Some people have actually given more money than what the platters cost. So he will be using that extra money to pay for additional ones.

Sweets said Osteria Poggio, which has since opened for take-out, now offers free meals to those who call ahead. The restaurant’s outreach has caught the attention of some of its suppliers, he said. On Thursday, vodka maker Tito offered to underwrite the cost of 40 meals for food-service workers or jobless people who signed up for a meal on the firm’s website.

“We intend to continue until there’s no longer a need,” Sweets said. “We want to take care of our community.”