Holiday potlucks and food pantries nourish scents of community

The list of food items was ambitious as the chapel congregation was asked to bring a variety of dishes. Volunteer crews were organized to set up and take down chairs and tables and decorate the chapel community room with festive accouterments for the holidays.

“This dinner was for lifties, ski instructors and service workers who have come into Aspen from Chile, Argentina, South Africa, Peru and other faraway places,” said chapel minister Nicholas Vesey, who led a raucous caroling session after a turkey dinner with all the fixings. “We wanted to give them a good Christmas.”

And so they did. The chapel was festive with white linen tablecloths, white ceramic plates and complete utensils for a stylish sit-down dinner. As the guests arrived, first in a trickle and then in a flood of young people from all over the world, Vesey, attired in a Santa hat, greeted everyone with cheerful welcomes, handshakes and hugs. Chapel volunteers did the same and soon the tables were filled as a convivial atmosphere brightened the room.

The chapel hosted the dinner, but the idea came from a young congregant, Spencer Bernhardt, who is teaching skiing at Snowmass for his second consecutive season. “Every town or city I’ve lived in has had a church dinner or church lunch,” Bernhardt said with a smile as the festivities grew into a communal celebration.

“I hadn’t seen one in Aspen, so I looked around and thought the Aspen Chapel would be the best place to do it,” he said. “I attend some of services here and tune in to others, and I think it’s just a great place. Whoever you are, you are welcome to come here. That’s the chapel’s message.”

Bernhardt proposed the idea to Vesey, who readily agreed. “I wanted to invite people who are new to the valley, like seasonal employees who might not have a big kitchen at home where they can make a really big meal and might not have many people to share it with,” Bernhardt said. “We wanted to create a space where people could come and enjoy a meal with others and enjoy their company, and especially enjoy the holidays.”

“Nicholas thought it was a great idea,” said Bernhardt, “so we hit the ground running, and the volunteers have done an absolutely incredible job providing real plates and real silverware and a chef and all the donated food. I am really happy to be here and happy to celebrate with everyone.”

Jeff Spiroff, banquet chef at the Aspen Meadows Resort, volunteered to oversee preparations for the feast. 

“Nicholas and I brainstormed the idea of hosting those who didn’t have a holiday table to go to this Christmas,” Spiroff said while busily dishing out turkey from a huge platter, “so we reached out to single kids who work for the [Aspen Skiing Co.] and who need a holiday table. We got the congregation together and decided to collectively host a potluck. I asked the Aspen Meadows Resort to donate six turkeys, and it all came together.”

Most of the guests were new to Aspen, Snowmass and the Roaring Fork Valley, far from family and friends, and most had not yet had a homestyle dinner prepared for them here with love and community in mind.

“This is the epitome of community,” said Michael Glah, a lifelong resident of Aspen and an Aspen Chapel regular. “It’s great that the chapel hosted this for the SkiCo kids who are super-far away from home and don’t get to have a legitimate home-cooked meal. One of the kids at our table said he had been living on frozen pizzas for the last month because that’s all he could afford. And many of them spend so much time commuting. For them, this is a really cool experience. They heard about it from a friend of a friend of a friend, and this is really special for describing what community means.”

When the buffet line opened, there was a miniscrum toward the food tables. Soon, diners were carrying off plates heaped with turkey, salad, vegetables and mashed potatoes with steaming turkey gravy. There were smiles of good tidings all around. 

As the diners got down to business, a hush fell over the room until folk singer Dan Sheridan struck up the chords to Christmas carols sung by one and all with equal measures of spirt and hilarity. A good time was had by guests and hosts alike in what may become a chapel tradition of hospitality and generosity, both hallmarks of the holiday spirit.

“This is important to me personally,” said Bernhardt, who noted that he has never initiated anything like this before. “In mountain towns, it’s really easy to feel loneliness and to feel a lack of community, even though there are people around you constantly. With tourists coming in, it’s sometimes hard to get the feeling of a small-town community and have people to rely on, so being able to enjoy a meal with people and create an environment where people feel very comfortable is incredibly important.

“And when the winter season really gets going,” he continued, “and everything gets really exciting, people just do their work and get into the habit of getting up in the morning, working on the mountain and then going home. Having a really good meal is something people are really missing.”

“This is really wonderful and really inspiring,” said Jay Werner, a university student from Seattle who was in town visiting one of the chapel congregants. “It is so common to see university students struggle with loneliness. So, I’m inspired to think that maybe we could do this there. It’s been a really great evening.”

Aspen City Council member Ward Hauenstein was among the chapel greeters and volunteers. Looking over the roomful of holiday songsters, he smiled and said, “You hear that laughter? That’s the sound of joy.”

Snowmass potlucks and Harvest for Hunger

On Nov. 19, the town of Snowmass Village hosted more than 100 local residents at the annual John Bemis Community Potluck at the Viewline Resort. This traditional holiday potluck began in the late 1980s as a small gathering at the Snowmass Chapel and has grown to an event that now fills a huge banquet hall.

The menu includes traditional Thanksgiving turkey, mashed potatoes and stuffing. Community members are encouraged to contribute side dishes. The Snowmass community also brings nonperishable food items for Harvest for Hunger, a Snowmass-based nonprofit that collects food from grocery stores and restaurants from Aspen to Carbondale — food that would otherwise go to waste. These collections then go to distribution partners and local agencies to provide food for those in need across the Western Slope.

Launched in 2020 “by ski bums,” according to the website, who live and work in the Roaring Fork Valley, Harvest for Hunger has become a noted food-distribution source in just three years. Founder Gray Warr said he recognized a disconnect in the valley between the fortunate and the less fortunate where many families struggle with wage disparity and the high cost of living, and where food can often be in short supply.

Harvest for Hunger was recently featured on National Public Radio’s show “All Things Considered,” thanks to an interview conducted by Kaya Williams, a reporter for NPR affiliate Aspen Public Radio. The story was picked up nationally, and for good reason. The charitable act of providing free food is a perfect complement to holidays associated with giving, which seems hard-wired into Warr’s philanthropic nature and extended sense of community.

“I was a ski instructor with clients who offered food leftovers when their vacations ended,” Warr said. “I reached out to other instructors for the same, thinking that those leftovers could be distributed to the needy.”

But leftovers often proved unacceptable, so, thanks to advice and encouragement from Katherine Sands of Aspen Family Connections, Warr shifted to larger food donors such as grocery stores.

“I started with City Market in Aspen,” Warr said, “then went to the City Markets at Carbondale and El Jebel, then expanded to Whole Foods, Roxy’s, Louis Swiss Bakery, Paradise Bakery, Clark’s Market in Aspen and Snowmass, the Limelight Hotel in Aspen and Snowmass, then the Hotel Jerome, Aspen Meadows Resort, Little Nell, and the Food & Wine and Ideas festivals. I didn’t know what I was getting myself into, and it has grown.”

Warr describes Harvest for Hunger as a middleman that delivers goods to Food Bank of the Rockies in Grand Junction and to Lift-Up in Parachute. “As partners, we deliver and they distribute across the Western Slope to food pantries.”

Warr said Harvest for Hunger would open its own pantry at Snowmass Village Town Hall starting Dec. 26, with doors and freezers open weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. throughout the ski season.

“We will serve anyone who needs it in what I’m calling a stigma-free pantry,” said Warr, “meaning that it’s unsupervised, so people can come and pick up food without a stigma. Our goal is to provide food for people who need it, those who live paycheck to paycheck and may be too proud to go to a food pantry. We will also be open to the undocumented because no identity is needed.”

Warr’s civil service background grew out of the five years he worked in disaster relief for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He noticed the food lines at distribution centers. “Seeing all this available food here, I decided now was the time. I’m so excited to get our pantry open the day after Christmas, and I’m especially grateful to the town of Snowmass Village and to the local grocery stores.”

“Kind Neighbor Project” provides community for SkiCo workforce

Deborah Madsen, a longtime resident of Snowmass Village, recently knocked on every door at the Club Commons, a SkiCo employee housing complex, and handed out cookies. In a personal, caring manner and with motherly concern, she checked in with these young residents, many of whom are newcomers to the Roaring Fork Valley.

“We get all these incredible new people who come to our town, at least 1,200,” said Madsen, wife of Snowmass Village Mayor Billy Madsen, “and when they get here they don’t always have bedding, cooking utensils and warm clothes, and they don’t know anyone. They don’t have family, so I want to create a neighbor-to-neighbor project where members of our community will reach out to these kids to meet them, maybe give them a place at their table, or give them a ride or even just provide laundry detergent — we’re talking the basics.”

Madsen’s concern has grown over the years after witnessing police interventions and ambulance visits for this youthful and often-at-risk workforce. “If we get them involved in our community early on, we can avoid some of the problems that can happen with illicit drugs, depression and police calls,” he said. “By creating a sense of community, I’m hoping we can alleviate those things. And there are a lot of people living here who need a sense of community as well.”

To that end, Madsen is orchestrating a program of weekly potluck dinners at the Snowmass Chapel where the chapel purchases food for a main course and guests contribute side dishes. Some provisions will come from Harvest for Hunger’s larder.

Madsen said, “We’re calling it the Kind Neighbor Project,” a community-building effort based on nourishment and well-being. “It’s all run by volunteers, where the kids we serve bring a dish and community members bring a dish, and it gives us a chance to sit around and talk. By doing these meals, hopefully we will create community for them.”

The potlucks are being planned at the Snowmass Chapel every Thursday during the ski season starting Jan. 11 from 5 to 7 p.m., an ambitious logistical challenge. Yet, Madsen’s personal mission goes further still.

“I have had calls from parents who say, ‘My child is really sick, I don’t know a doctor there and I don’t know what to do.’ So, I went to the Commons and found this kid and took him to the clinic at Snowmass. Then I went home and made a pot of soup and hot tea and cookies.”

Madsen learned that the young man had roommates who were also in need. “He said the doors to their rooms were closed and they were always on their phone. I realized that these kids are lonely, and I don’t feel that anyone in our community should be lonely.” 

Donating money to the cause is appreciated, but that’s not enough, said Madsen. “I don’t want people to just throw money at it; I want them to volunteer. I want them to give back,” she said. “When I handed out over 300 cookies, I knocked on every single door at the Commons. And the kids said, ‘Oh, wow, thank you! This is a nice place!’

“A lot of these kids will only be here for one season, so let’s make it a good one for them, one that’s not lonely, that’s not depressing, that’s not drunken or stoned the whole time. This close-knit community can help alleviate some of the loneliness. There are enough people here who can create a sense of community for them.”

This story has been updated to correct the day of the week the Kind Neighbor Project dinners are planned. They will be on Thursdays, not Tuesdays, starting Jan. 11.

Next in the “In Search of Community” series is a look at Aspen’s perceived crisis of community identity with a look back into Aspen’s historical sense of community and the events and forces that have contributed to its erosion.