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Caroline Shook didn’t realize how much she missed fresh asparagus. But when she was finally able to taste it again this fall, the old pleasures came flooding back. And so did her appetite.
“I don’t think I’ve had it since I can’t remember when,” she said. “When you can have good food and look forward to it, it’s just a dream. It really does help your mood.”
For four years, the 64-year-old has been mostly bound to her Virginia Beach home, unable to drive, or even to take walks without fear of falling.
“I have medical issues that cause me to have dizzy spells,” she said. “I had one when I was driving once, and that was it. I parked it. … The only places I go are the hospital and the doctor’s office, and right now they’re only doing that over the phone”
Especially during the pandemic, her only lifeline to a hot meal has been the bags that show up at her front door, delivered by Meals on Wheels of Virginia Beach through a consortium of volunteers at local churches. Shook’s dinners are among more than a thousand that the 46-year-old nonprofit delivers each week to those unable to leave their homes.
And as of September, Shook said, “I’ve gone from bland hospital food to gourmet meals.”
This could mean beef stroganoff — a particular favorite for Shook — fresh vegetables, and even prime rib. The difference in her quality of life has been night and day, she said, and it has also had positive repercussions for her health.
“I have a problem with my appetite,” Shook said. “I don’t get hungry. But now I look forward to eating.”
The story behind that suddenly tasty food is perhaps a poster child for the unexpected side effects of the coronavirus, as restaurants and caterers have had to reshape how they do business.
Those essential meals — once cooked in the commercial kitchen of a local nursing facility — now come from a high-end Hampton Roads caterer who in other years might be searing steaks for a wedding. But Chef by Design catering company’s once-bustling events business was laid waste during the pandemic, as an entire city’s wedding plans crumpled into an empty page.
“We had 22 full-time workers and 100 part-time and seasonal employees before COVID,” said Marcy Telfer, co-owner of Chef by Design with her husband John, who trained with the first certified master chef in America, Milos Cihelka. “We’d just acquired our first venue, in downtown Norfolk — the Neon House. We were really rolling on catering and events. And then as soon as March came, our calendar got wiped clean.”
They had to strip their catering company back to a skeleton crew. And every time a lull in the pandemic made weddings seem possible again, those too got wiped away by new waves of coronavirus cases — and sometimes new pandemic restrictions.
Then came Meals on Wheels. In September, the deal that Meals on Wheels had made with its former food provider was expiring. And while the meals were nutritionally sound, the charity was looking to find someone new after their provider sold to an out-of-town corporation.
“We wanted to find someone local, someone who was invested in the community,” said Tracie Miner, the program’s executive director.
Someone, in short, a lot like the Telfers — who also had a personal connection to the needs of homebound seniors.
“We got wind of their situation,” said Telfer, “and I picked up the phone and called Tracie. I was in the car with my husband, and we talked for 30 minutes sharing stories. My mother was in a similar situation with others in Meals on Wheels, and I’ve learned how incredibly important nutritious meals can be. Food speaks to people of all ages.”
Telfer’s mother had also suffered from a loss of appetite while eating the food she was given in the hospital.
“I saw it with my mom, she couldn’t hardly eat the food,” Telfer remembered. “But as soon as my husband started cooking for her, she put on weight.”
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The Telfers set about rejiggering their kitchen for the needs of Meals on Wheels clients. They created a low-cost, nutritionally balanced, scratch-cooked menu that balanced interesting flavors with the familiar, old-school foods their clients had grown up with.
“We brainstormed on food where we could elevate the palate, but not too much,” Telfer said. “Food they could recognize from childhood memories, fresh food they haven’t had in the past couple years. We did a braised beef short rib with Bordelaise, red wine, crispy onions, fresh whipped potatoes, green beans, glazed carrots. We don’t buy frozen. We get real carrots and steam them — the same with broccoli, cauliflower and green beans.”
Virginia Beach’s Meals on Wheels is unaffiliated with any national or public organizations, and sponsors the majority of the meals it serves. Most of their budget, Miner said, comes from fundraising through civic groups, community organizations and the military. And during the pandemic, the charity’s funds have been tighter than ever amid increased need. But the Telfers were able to provide high-quality meals for a similar cost the charity had been paying before.
“I don’t know how they do it,” Miner said.
With their normal crop of middle-school volunteers disrupted by the closure of schools during the pandemic, Miner enlisted local preschoolers to make hand-drawn cards and cover the meal bags with stickers — the kids sometimes fight over the stickers, she laughs. During the pandemic, when meal bags have to be left on the porch by volunteers, Miner said those cards can sometimes be her clients’ only personal contacts with the outside world.
The children write little messages, or make drawings. One might say that he wants to be a fireman when he grows up. Others simply write, “I love you.”
“One of those hand-drawn cards went in one of my mom’s bags,” said Telfer, whose mother is also a client. “She couldn’t stop staring at that picture. These small things — they may seem small, but it’s literally a lifeline to these clients in Virginia Beach. They’re not getting those personal interactions the way it was before.”
Miner said that ever since the Telfers started cooking their scratch-made meals, the response has been overwhelming — with calls and letters pouring in about the food. And as word gets around, more and more seniors are signing up for meal delivery.
“They started talking amongst themselves, our clients in independent living centers,” Miner said. “They said ‘That food looks really good!’ And suddenly the orders start picking up.”
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Let's Eat
As good as it’s been for the clients, and for the nonprofit, the partnership also helped keep Chef by Design catering company afloat. Much like the local restaurants who cooked $10 meals for the food-insecure through Jose Andres’ World Central Kitchen in Hampton Roads this summer, the meals have been a small source of income keeping a crew of six cooks employed.
“We thought we could be an answer for Meals on Wheels of Virginia Beach,” Telfer said. “As it turned out, it was a blessing for both parties.”
Telfer said she and her husband have committed to keep working with Meals on Wheels even when the pandemic subsides and their regular business picks back up. Providing these meals offers a sense of satisfaction that’s different from the meals they make for their corporate or wedding clients, she said.
“We got a phone call that made us cry,” she said, “when we heard how thankful one gentleman was for fresh fruit: just a banana with his lunch, a sandwich with lettuce and tomato and whole wheat bread. He called, and you could hear the emotion in his voice. It was emotional for him to have that kind of fresh food, something we take for granted. And for him to take the time to call and leave this beautiful message… We’ve never been a company that did this sort of thing before.”
For clients like Shook, the new food has been a godsend.
“Every day, I say, ‘This is so good. It’s so good,’” she said. “I’m almost getting tired of saying it. How many times can you say that in a week?”
Matthew Korfhage, 757-446-2318, matthew.korfhage@pilotonline.com