GREENFIELD — Court Square was closed to traffic and set up with rows of long tables on Sunday, all of them totally filled with people for the 15th annual Harvest Supper.
The festival is a celebration of the harvest season — “the bounteous-est time of year” — and of Greenfield’s uniquely community-minded spirit, said Chef Kirsten Levitt.
“Where else but Greenfield does everyone get invited to eat?” she asked.
The Harvest Supper’s billing as a “free” meal is “much more than just the monetary free,” Levitt said: it is free in that it is open to everyone, and easily accessible because of its location in an open-air, public space. The supper typically draws 700 to 1,000 attendees, she said.
Levitt is the executive chef and executive director of the Stone Soup Cafe, a pay-what-you-can meal open on Saturdays, normally at All Souls Church on the corner of Main and Hope streets, but for now at Hawks & Reed Performing Arts Center due to construction at the church.
She first got involved with the Harvest Supper seven years ago, when the original founders were still in charge of organizing it, she said. Her contribution that year was a blueberry cobbler for 800 people. Since then, Stone Soup Cafe has taken over the organization.
Levitt does the majority of the cooking, and delegates and oversees other tasks. Cooking started Wednesday, she said. Meats were pre-cooked Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Chopping and prepping the vegetables took 40 people 10 hours on Friday.
“Deep friendships are formed over chopping vegetables at the Harvest Festival each year,” Levitt said.
About 90 percent of the ingredients for the meal are donated by local farmers, Levitt said. The other 10 percent consists of specialty ingredients that have to come from a grocery store, she said.
The serving stations and kitchen are staffed by volunteers, notably including local politicians. This year’s staff included Mayor William Martin and all three mayoral candidates — Sheila Gilmour, Brickett Allis and Roxann Wedegartner.
“It’s a great event. It’s a good opportunity to give back to the community,” said state Rep. Paul Mark, D-Peru, who was working on the serving line. “It’s always good to feed people.”
Among this year’s new sponsorships was Cartelli’s Ford dealership. Workers were at the festival in coordinated “Cartelli’s Angels” shirts as part of an ongoing effort to support the community, said Jenny Weeks, who coordinates the dealership’s marketing.
Early organization is already starting for next year’s festival, which will be the third Sunday of August, Levitt said. She encourages anyone who is interested in helping to contact info.stonesoupcafe@gmail.com.
Reach Max Marcus at mmarcus@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 261.