I met Susan Strickland this summer.  Not SUE Strickland, but SUSAN Strickland as she will gently remind you!  Well, sometimes not so gently.  When we met she was hovering over the table that my wife had been occupying at dinner in the one restaurant we go to almost nightly in Rhode Island.  Turtle Soup.  I believe if I offered her my dinner to finish so she could have our ocean view table she might have taken the bread and wiped my plate clean.  And so it began.

Susan is very inquisitive and wants to know all there is to know about you.  We quickly figured out that we were from the same Shoreline towns in CT.   SUSAN lives in Madison, CT and we live in Guilford, CT.  So, the same town at least historically.  Did you know that Madison was at one time East Guilford? I digress.  SUSAN then launches very quickly into her “I own the Stony Creek Gallery” speech and “Do you buy art speech”.   We agree on many things and the night proceeds with SUSAN and her parents basically pushing us out of our seats and conquering what she had set out to do.  Not buying us dinner, but taking over our “spot”.

Fast forward to October 22, 2009 and the kickoff to the Kitchen Art Show at the Stony Creek Gallery in Branford, CT.  The entire event, which runs from October 22 – November 22 supports not only the great artists and their work, but the The Community Dining Room.    The Community Dining Room was founded in 1985 and is a private, not-for-profit organization providing food, support and companionship to our shoreline neighbors. In the spring of 2000, the CDR moved to its present location in the Volunteer Services Center. With this additional space, the CDR expanded its home delivery program and began an evening family dinner.

THE COMMUNITY DINING ROOM:

• Serves over 3,500 meals each month
• Serves a hot lunch daily in our dining room
• Offers a home-delivery program
• Provides an evening family dinner
• Hosts special holiday dinners at Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas
• Offers community service opportunities to youth
• Promotes literacy within the family
• Meets our guests’ emotional, physical and material needs through referrals to
social service agencies, medical screenings and crisis counseling
• Provides nutritional support to seniors in an effort to delay entry into nursing homes
• Collaborates with the Connecticut Food Bank, the Greater New Haven Emergency Food Council, End Hunger Connecticut, and the
Visiting Nurses Association

Enjoy the photos from the kick off and be sure to join us on 10/29 for cookbook author Terry Walters and her Clean Food demonstration.  And remember, its SUSAN Strickland not Sue…..

(click on pictures for larger images)

Related posts:

1. Kitchen Art Show
2. Stony Creek Gallery: Kitchen Art Show
3. Stony Creek Gallery Presents: The Kitchen Art Show
4. Stony Creek Gallery Presents: Champagne, Flowers, and Desserts
5. Stony Creek Art Show