GREENFIELD — The menus have changed since the first Harvest Supper, but locally grown food and community support have never left the table.
In its 20th year, the annual Harvest Supper remains a Greenfield staple, demonstrated by the turnout of nearly 1,000 people on Saturday afternoon. In reflecting on two decades of the meal, Mary McClintock, one of the original volunteer organizers, shared what is the most important ingredient of all: “Community coming together to celebrate and create the abundant, generous world we want to live in every day.”
Court Square was lined with dining tables filled with people and plates of food prepared and served by Stone Soup Cafe volunteers and staff. People of all ages lined up for their pay-what-you-can meal starting at 4 p.m., with an ever-growing queue around the perimeter of the Greenfield Common. As is tradition, the menu items were created using local ingredients from farms across the Pioneer Valley.
Planting the seed
The seed for this unique feast was planted in 2005 by the late civil rights and peace activist Juanita Nelson, who had the support of like-minded residents to bring her idea of a free community meal to life.
“We could not have imagined that 20 years later we’d be here doing this again,” McClintock said of the Harvest Supper, adding, “[Juanita] was the kind of person who could say something like that and 25 people would say, ‘OK, let’s do it.'”
Nelson and her husband, Wally, moved to Deerfield in 1974 to practice organic farming, and together they co-founded the Greenfield Farmers Market and the Valley Community Land Trust. After Wally died in 2002, Juanita sought another way to give back to the community, and that is where the “Free Harvest Supper of Locally Grown Food” was born.
Chef Maggie Zaccara and Evelyn Wulfkuhle of Hope & Olive originally prepared the meal. After Juanita Nelson died in 2015 at the age of 91, Stone Soup Cafe took over planning the event the following year.
Aaron Falbel of the Nelson Legacy Project said both Wally and Juanita were involved in the United Farm Workers union, advocating for better protection for farmers, and for local food consumption, giving people the knowledge of where their food is produced, who produced it and under what conditions.
“I think this celebration of local food really speaks to people, and I think [Juanita] would want people to think about not only that local food is fresher, tastes better, it’s more nutritious, feeds the local economy,” Falbel said, “but it’s also a way of expressing one’s belief in non-violence and non-exploitation.”
To honor the 20 years since the beginning of the Harvest Supper, the local delegation of state lawmakers returned for volunteer service and presented citations to Stone Soup Cafe.
“This, for us, is the embodiment of what community should look like, and Greenfield and Stone Soup Cafe and this Harvest Supper now 20 years old, is everything good about Franklin County and western Massachusetts,” state Sen. Jo Comerford, D-Northampton, said during her speech presenting the citation from the state Senate, co-signed by Sen. Paul Mark, D-Becket.
“This is incredible. All local food, locally made with love and with heart, and we are so glad to be here with you tonight,” state Rep. Natalie Blais, D-Deerfield, said, presenting the House of Representatives citation alongside Rep. Susannah Whipps, I-Athol, and co-signed by Rep. Aaron Saunders, D-Belchertown.
Love for community
Volunteers have been a critical element of the production of the meal that serves hundreds of people. This year, Stone Soup Cafe Executive Director and Chef Kirsten Levitt said there were 175 volunteer slots available for the preparation of the meal beginning Wednesday, and all but two spots were filled — an increase from 2024, with only 130 volunteers.
“Every shift was full. If we needed people to stay a little longer, they did,” Levitt said.
This influx of volunteers, Levitt said, could be due to the nostalgia of 20 years of the Harvest Supper, along with an interest in more civic engagement. This support is crucial to the success of the meal after two decades, with Levitt noting the goodwill of local farmers who want to share their food with their communities.
“Farmers want to feed people. They want their product to be consumed, they want to be able to make a living, but they also want people not to go hungry,” she said.
Both Trouble Mandeson and Louise Sauter are volunteers with Stone Soup Cafe, and have been attending the Harvest Supper for more than 10 years. Speaking to Levitt’s perception of how this meal has endured for so long, Mandeson said volunteering with the Harvest Supper is how she gives back.
“I love my community because I’m a people person. I’m voice-activated, which means I’ve got to get out of my house every day and be around people,” Mandeson said. “I just think it’s a really wonderful thing for people to all be out here outside today in their town.”
Sauter emphasized the importance of the volunteers working late nights to put together the meal. She said she comes back each time for the camaraderie.
Notably, this year’s Harvest Supper falls during a time when one in two households in Franklin County are reporting food insecurity, Levitt explained, citing data from the Greater Boston Food Bank’s Food Access Report.
When asked about the value of the Harvest Supper in light of this data, coupled with federal funding cuts to food banks and programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Levitt said it highlights the continued need for a community effort like the Harvest Supper.
“People are really feeling the pinch,” she said, “so it makes it even more important to say, ‘We all have to eat, so come sit at our table today.'”