21 Years Around the Table at Saint Luke’s Parish
Giving Back | written by: PETER SAVERINE, Darien resident | photo by: BAMBI RIEGEL | riegelpictureworks.com
Community Supper leaders (from left): Kristen Nelson, Francesca Principe, Fred Elliott, Fran Principe, Jeanne Sekse
EARLY EVERY THURSDAY, the lower-level Parish Hall of Saint Luke’s Episcopal Church in Darien assumes a unique hum. Volunteers arrive to make salads, sides next. By afternoon, the main course is heated. Soon, the familiar red aprons and hats appear, tables are set, and the kitchen fills with conversation and laughter. By 5pm, guests are arriving.
For more than two decades, this weekly ritual has been at the heart of Saint Luke’s Community Supper, a ministry built around a simple idea: everyone deserves a good meal and the opportunity to belong.
A Tradition Begins
The Community Supper started during Lent 2006, when Sarah Moden-Alliston, then Saint Luke’s church school director, envisioned a meal that would bring people together around a shared table.
What began as a welcoming meal grew into something much larger. Week after week, volunteers and guests returned. Friendships formed, cooking teams developed and a Thursday-night supper became a 21-year (and counting!) Saint Luke’s tradition, powered during most of the years since it launched by the compassion, volunteerism and energy of Fran Principe and Fred Elliott, though both are quick to credit the extraordinary network of the more than 65 other volunteers and community partners behind the Community Supper.
A Table Where Everyone Is Welcome
There are no requirements for attending a Community Supper. No reservations necessary. No judgements, no distinctions made around the tables. People come because they want (or need) a meal, enjoy the company or thrive on the welcome.
Fran came to understand the importance of that welcome through people like her friend Victoria, a regular guest who helped her see that the supper was providing something much deeper than dinner when Victoria told her that she would otherwise be alone on Thanksgiving (which the Community Supper celebrates the week before the holiday).
A plate of food matters, but so does having somewhere to go, a place where people know your name and expect you.
The Hospitality of the Table
Dinner is served from 5 to 6 pm, but the evening extends much further with the radical welcome that marks these gatherings. Tentative exchanges open into genuine connection. New faces become familiar. Friendships grow.
“There are few strangers and fewer loners at Community Supper,” Fred reflected. “The hospitality of the table won’t accept them.”
It is a defining quality of the program, revealing itself quietly, repeatedly, as each “fragmented exchange grows into more fluid conversation,” said Fred.
Fred Elliott and Fran Principe during COVID-19 / photo courtesy Fran Principe
The People Behind the Supper
Keeping a weekly dinner running for 21 years takes a village.
There are shoppers and salad spinners, a sides crew and servers, people who set tables, wash dishes and clean the kitchen. At the heart of the operation are four dedicated cooking crews and their captains—the longtime backbone of the Community Supper.
Fran captains one crew made up of members of her book club. Her daughter Francesca and Fred captain the newest and youngest group, affectionately known as the Freshmen. Jeanne Sekse captains an all-men’s cooking crew, while Kristen Nelson leads the fourth team. Together, these captains and their crews provide the continuity that keeps dinner coming out of the kitchen week after week.
Fran also points to longtime volunteers Beverly Kelsey and Mary Ann Williams, among the many whose steady commitment has helped the ministry thrive.
Newer volunteers are equally important to its future. Jen Kepner, who became involved after returning to Saint Luke’s a few years ago, now handles the important weekly job of organizing and assigning servers. Heather Curran, another newer volunteer, keeps showing up and asking what more she can do.
Members of the Saint Luke’s middle and high school youth group volunteers / photo courtesy Fran Principe
The Magic of One Hour
Sixty-five volunteers don’t keep coming back because someone tells them to. They return because somewhere along the way, the people working beside them have become friends—people they might never otherwise have met.
“I love how this evening allows me to meet people that I normally wouldn’t have a chance to meet,” observed Heather.
“There are lots of smiles and kindness is in the air—it’s just a very happy environment,” continued Heather who especially values the mix of generations who volunteer— “very little kids, middle schoolers, teens—and a healthy crew that has been there for many years,” she added. “People come for the food and stay for the warm atmosphere and company.”
Volunteers most definitely return for the multi-generational volunteerism it gives their children.
“My daughters, Charlotte and Finley, and I have found a great sense of community by volunteering at the Community Supper,” said Krista Brown. Whether serving, cleaning or helping someone carry a plate, her daughters experience service alongside people of different ages and backgrounds. “It is a wonderful few hours we get to spend together during an otherwise busy week.”
For Fran, it is also personal, a family tradition. Three generations of her family now participate: Fran; her daughter Francesca; her daughter Alex and husband Joe; and their two children.
Fred’s family is part of the tradition as well. His son Andrew, Andrew’s wife Sarah, and their two boys join Fred in helping prepare meals.
Volunteers come back because of the satisfaction found in doing something tangible for someone else.
Heather has brought friends and family members including her son, Harry, to help and said they leave “feeling the magic of that one hour in the Saint Luke’s basement.”
“Fran and her team of volunteers have built a wonderful weekly event that has supported the community in so many positive ways, and we are thrilled to be a part of it,” Krista added.
Fran Principe (far right) with Beverly Kelsey (far left), and Sandy Hyde (center) / photo courtesy Fran Principe
When Everything Changed
While gathering around tables became impossible during COVID-19, the need for meals and connection remained. Rather than close the kitchen, Fran, Fred and their team quickly adapted. Smaller groups, working masked and in staggered shifts, prepared takeout meals for 13 weeks, keeping the ministry going during one of the community’s most isolating periods.
The format changed. The mission did not.
Local businesses including Michael Joseph’s Catering, Papa Joe’s, Nikki Glekas Events and Atria stepped forward to help, joining Palmer’s Market, a key Community Supper supporter from the beginning. (Palmer’s weekly donations of bread and desserts continue today, in a quiet generosity that marks much of their giving back in town.)
From left: Saint Luke’s parishioners Mark Campbell, Howard Courtemanche, Kip Hewitt, Ed Lyons, Chuck Andreae, Fred Elliott, Sam Bridges, Chuck Jackson and Wilder Gleason with two volunteers from the community. / photo courtesy Fran Principe
Celebrating the People Behind the Aprons
Fred makes sure the volunteers get their moment at the table.
Each year, he hosts a volunteer recognition gathering at his home, giving those who spend so much time serving others a chance to celebrate one another with aptly named awards: The Main Ingredient Award for an especially important contributor; the Above and Beyond the Cutting Board Award for those who go the extra step; and now a Youth Cutting Board Award, recognizing the next generation.
Passing the Spatula
These days, Fran and Fred are thinking about how to make sure the tradition continues after they finally pass the spatula. They describe the challenge in the language they know best: as a recipe.
“The main ingredients? Handfuls of younger leaders and volunteers, a pinch of public support, a generous dose of dedication—and a cup of kindness for dessert,” they say. It is a fitting recipe for a ministry that understands that the most important thing served on Thursday nights isn’t necessarily what is on the plate.
Want to be part of the next chapter? Individuals, families and community groups interested in volunteering, supporting or learning more about Saint Luke’s Community Supper may contact Fran Principe at mfprincipe@yahoo.com or Jen Kepner at jkepner7@gmail.com.
