What do the Culinary Institute of America, the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley, People’s Place Food Pantry, professional chefs from the Kingston area and a 15 year old girl all have in common? They will all come together on Tuesday morning, September 22 at 10:00am, People’s Place Thrift Store and Food Pantry on the corner of St. James Street and Broadway in Kingston for a very special event during the Food Bank Farm Stand. Every Tuesday during the harvest season the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley provides several pallets of donated farm fresh produce weekly to People’s Place Food Pantry for a Food Bank Farm stand where anyone in need can “shop” for fruit and vegetables to take home, free of charge.

At the event, three area chefs from Mint restaurant, Old Savannah restaurant and Caring Hands Soup Kitchen will wield their sharpened steel against two faculty instructors from the Culinary Institute of America and the recent winner of the Food Network’s Teen Chopped program, Kingston’s own 15 year-old Alexina Chasin to create easy but fabulous dishes.  The chefs will be bulking up food pantry staples with “mystery ingredients” of fresh Hudson Valley farm produce from the Food Bank Farm Stand.  They will use all low-budget, SNAP-style seasonings. Farm Stand visitors will be able to talk with the chefs, get some recipes, sample and vote on their favorite culinary concoctions.

Much of the produce given out during the harvest season is donated by area farmers, meaning it is super fresh, extra tasty and loaded with nutrition.  The project is made possible by the Community Foundation of the Hudson Valley, through a grant from the New World Foundation’s Local Economies Project.  It is designed to meet the needs of those living in urban, USDA-designated “food deserts”, which are low-income areas where folks have limited access to fresh foods.

For more information on this unique event, please contact People’s Place Food Pantry and Thrift Store at 338-4030, email at director@peoplesplacekingston.org, or call Carrie Jones Ross, Food Sourcing Coordinator at the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley at 534-5344, ext. 112.