Donna Grow: Moultonborough has opportunity to upgrade community kitchen

To The Daily Sun,

Your Town Meeting is coming up again on May 14. As site manager for Moultonborough/Sandwich Senior Meals, I have been asked by petitioners of Article 7 to comment. Article 7 asks that you approve tax dollars to build an addition onto the Moultonborough Function Hall (Lion’s Club building) for a community commercial kitchen, storage area and office.

In 2004, I was asked to run the Moultonborough Sandwich Senior Meals program as site manager. I fundraised for some needed kitchen equipment, started cooking the food in-house in the small Lion’s Club kitchen, and collected a team of volunteers to deliver meals. Demand grew steadily. Last year, meals prepared topped 31,000, and given the older population in Moultonborough and food inflation, we are on track for higher meals numbers this year. We long-ago outgrew the kitchen and storage areas, which are now deteriorated. We are grateful that the town is finally providing some fixes for some of the hygienic issues and size limitations, but those fixes are temporary measures.

Articles to provide community kitchens have all failed in the past attempts because each have been dependent upon the passing of multi-million-dollar, multi-use buildings. Well-intended people set us up for failure, and the biggest losers in these well-intended projects are the seniors and others with the actual needs — those with severe health and mobility issues that we serve.

Article 7 with a smaller, affordable budget has an opportunity to pass.

The promise of a facility upgrade has loomed for a decade. Eighteen years later, I’m still hoping a new kitchen can be built for your community before my daughter-in-law, Jo Grow, takes the reins as site manager. I have appreciated the opportunity to serve you all, and after more than a decade of waiting, ask for your “yes” vote.

Donna Grow

Moultonborough