At its March 10 meeting, Nokomis Heights Church Council authorized the plan and budget to move forward with substantial renovation and upgrade of the church’s kitchen. When completed sometime this summer, the kitchen will be equipped to begin an operation affiliated with Loaves and Fishes, to serve a community meal once a week for those needing a hot meal in our neighborhood (more frequent meals may be served once we get established). This is a key element of the “Opening Doors” campaign, which received generous financial support from the Nokomis Heights’ community.
The contractor for the project is Building Assets, LLC, a construction company owned and operated by Nate Fluegge, Nokomis Heights member.
When completed, the kitchen will have new sink configurations to separate hand washing, food preparation, and dirty pots and dishes cleaning; stainless-steel countertops throughout; a commercial-grade oven hood over the ovens with venting out the back wall; a vent for the dishwasher out the back wall (solving the peeling paint/moisture problem on the ceiling); a new stainless-steel cabinet to house the coffee makers; dish storage systems that will fit under the new stainless-steel tables that replace the current center islands; new windows; and a new commercial-grade freezer that will sit in the room adjacent to the kitchen, with our current refrigerator. These changes will all increase the cleanliness and food safety conditions in the kitchen.
Because some of the current storage will be lost, another space—known forevermore as “the Men’s Robe Room” off Fellowship Hall—will be renovated to house kitchen supplies that are needed on a less-frequent basis. Small refrigerators for overflow will also find a place there.
Getting to this point has required lots of help.
The Loaves and Fishes Task Force, supplemented by a number of kitchen veterans and commercial kitchen experts, has helped guide the plans to get to this point: Cindy Nelson, Pam Dewey, Bill Kaemmerer, Celeste Delap, Elisabeth Pletcher, Kim Bretheim, Linda Grieme, Carolyn Deters, Marian Blattner, Tom O’Mara, Gregg Kelley, Mark Lofthus, and Pastor Kris Capel. Cindy, Pam, and Elisabeth also undertook the mammoth task to empty out the kitchen (if you ever wondered how much was in our kitchen, check out the middle Sunday school rooms on the upper floor of the Education building). Tom, Gregg, and Mark did the initial demolition.
Special thanks to Nate Fluegge for working closely with us to design and plan for a kitchen that will serve us well for many decades.
Work to demolish parts of the kitchen that will be replaced began March 26. Further work will have to be done to remove the current sinks. As work progresses, we will do our best to offer updates.
