Simple to unusual, soup's on for seniors

BRIDGTON - The dish is sometimes simple: chicken noodle soup. It is sometimes unusual: pesto romano chicken sausage soup.

Either way, the soups served during the Wednesday senior lunch at the Bridgton Community Center are getting rave reviews every time.

It is a vote of confidence for some local restaurants that cook up and donate five gallons of their soup du jour to the senior meal program as part of a guest chef program.

"I figured since I was the kitchen manager, I could come in on my own time and (make the soup) when we had somebody else on. We don't mind as long as it helps out," said David Clark, a chef at Ricky's Diner.

He said making soup is his favorite thing to do, anyway. The diner plans to cook soup for the program at least once or twice a month.

The guest chef program is spicing up the Bridgton Community Center's four-year-old senior lunch program.

About 60 or so seniors come to the center every Wednesday for the hot meal offered at a suggested donation of $2. In prior years, Bridgton's Ingrid von Kannewurff cooked and ran the senior meal at the center with a group of dedicated volunteers. She also ran the senior transportation program.

But it was a lot for one person, said Cinda Roy, a senior meal volunteer and youth coordinator at the center.

So near the end of 2006, the call went out to local restaurants to help, since they were cooking up lunch already. It was answered by the chefs and cooks from Fine Kettle of Fish, Morning Dew Natural Foods Grocery & Cafe, Morning Glory Diner, Ricky's Diner, Trailside Steak and Seafood and 302 Roadhouse Restaurant and Pub.

Von Kannewurff is now focusing on the transportation program.

David Goldrup, a Bridgton resident and a regular diner at the senior lunch, said the meal was good when von Kannewurff was the chef. He says having the restaurants involved "is an excellent means of making themselves known to the locals. As a result of it we've visited several of them that we hadn't known of before."

Of the chowders and beef stews and chicken vegetable soups sampled by Goldrup over the past few weeks, nothing stands out as a favorite.

"They've all been very good," he said.

Roy, though, said the chicken noodle soup from Ricky's Diner is the best the center ever served.

Whether simple or unusual, the hot soup meal is an important part of the week for many of the area's senior citizens, Roy said.

"A lot of people get out only once a week, just for this meal," she said. "It's the one hot meal a week some people get."

It is also the perfect opportunity for people like Goldrup to catch up with friends. He'd take Clark's chicken noodle at the senior center over soup from a can at home any Wednesday.

"It's a social gathering as well as a good meal," he said. "I haven't had a bad one yet."