Nourishing their neighbors, ‘24Meals’ at a time

As mystery boxes go, the carton of groceries delivered to Johnny C’s Diner on a recent Thursday weren’t nearly as exotic as those that had carried chef John Church to his 2018 victory on “Chopped.”

But the rules of this cooking challenge weren’t the same either. Rather than wowing a Food Network panel of celebrity judges with his creativity and speed, Church would use these ingredients to create two dozen meals for homebound and food insecure Las Vegans, as part of a program called 24Meals.

Church quickly surveyed the ingredients that 24Meals founder Katinka Fresinski had brought to his Arville Street restaurant: some nice looking steaks, onions, broccoli, zucchini, apples and other assorted produce, all donated by local businesses. His friend Chris Conlon, the Piero’s chef who had challenged him to participate, had added a seasonal can of pumpkin and envelopes of turkey gravy to the mix, just for fun.

“I’ll probably sear off the steaks and make a pan sauce with some of the onions here and this gravy, work in the various different ingredients,” the chef mused to himself, sorting through the delivery.

“You’ve got the pumpkins,” he continued, eyeing Conlon’s gifts. “I can do like a cauliflower and pumpkin, almost like a potato puree, but with cauliflower and pumpkins. I’m kind of even thinking a TV dinner type of thing going on.”

‘Food is beautiful’

At this point, the chef was still brainstorming. Yet, less than 24 hours later, Church’s two dozen meals had been delivered to Fresinski’s home in individual containers. Scribbled on each lid was a description of what the chef created from his mystery box — NY strip steak, brown butter, cauliflower & pumpkin puree, brown rice pilaf, broccoli, zucchini, chanterelle mushrooms, red wine onions, and bourbon-raisin apple slaw. Each also featured an inspirational message Church had been asked to write for the recipients of his efforts. His note, hand-scrawled in black Sharpie, was just three words: “Food is beautiful.”

“That, actually, was Caleb, my son’s idea,” Fresinski explained of the personal notes, standing in the spare bedroom of her home that she’s converted to a makeshift pantry.

In the eight months since the event staffer and her family began 24Meals, they’ve shipped over 8,000 meals out of this room. Over 100 local chefs have accepted the challenge to aid in their preparation, and challenged friends and colleagues to do the same. The effort has grown to delivering meals to about 150 Las Vegas families a week — not bad for an idea that began with some family chores.

“When we were at home, quarantined, we were doing family projects, and one of our first family projects was cleaning out the pantry,” says Fresinski, explaining that they were preparing to adopt a ketogenic diet.

“So my husband cleaned out the pantry and got all the pasta and everything out. And he made a bunch of meals. The first round of meals he made was 24 meals.”

Fresinski and her husband worked in industries affected by the COVID-19 shutdown. (He runs restaurants on the Strip; she runs an event staffing business.) So they knew plenty of people who could benefit from a free, healthy meal. What they weren’t expecting, however, was the response.

“We got it out to people in the church, people who work for us, friends, family,” she recalls of those first meals.

“And every person who got those meals (began) sending us food and asking us if my husband could make more meals — for this family, or this family, or this family that was struggling. So it just started building from there. And now I have a pantry in the house.”

These days, three days a week, that pantry serves as a hub for the distribution of between 200 and 500 meals. On this particular Friday afternoon, Anthony Magana and his wife Jennifer have been charged with distributing Church’s meals, along with a week’s worth of other groceries, to six households throughout the valley. The couple are 24Meals veterans, having delivered at least 200 meals for the cause. They originally learned of the program through Facebook, from a chef friend who had participated.

“We’d just been looking to get into something where we could just get outside of ourselves and our everyday agenda and give back to the community,” says Anthony, a mortgage banker. “And we just believe this is a good way to help families who need food in this time.”

Asked if any particular deliveries stand out for her, Jennifer thinks a bit before answering.

“The gratitude is always there,” she replies. “If I were to say something that stood out to me, I’d say that it’s that you see all walks. It’s just a good reminder that no one is above troubles.”

‘A nice meal’

Among the recipients of the Maganas’ deliveries on this Friday is Heaven Burns, who greets them at the door of a house in North Las Vegas. She’s the primary caregiver for her uncle, who suffers from dementia and is battling cancer.

“We don’t get out during this time, obviously,” she explains, noting that in addition to his underlying medical condition, her uncle has difficulty understanding the need to wear a mask in public. “So he looks forward to once a week us having a nice meal.”

About an hour later, Anthony walks a delivery into the home of Wendell, a below-the-knee amputee who asks his last name not be used to protect his privacy. In his kitchen, Wendell makes his way through a jar of peanut butter, some cheese, produce and a few other items before coming to Church’s meal.

“That looks pretty good,” he says of the steak dinner. “I might use that tonight, because I’m running low. I was cooking some extra food just in case.”

The retired nurse who rarely gets out of the house calls the deliveries from 24Meals “a lifesaver,” both financially and nutritionally. Moreover, he says, they taste good.

“The flavor has been outstanding. And that’s one of the things I’ve really appreciated, I get some variety. Because with my cooking, and what I was doing before, I could only use brown rice, a little frozen vegetable, and maybe some other type of protein.”

When asked if he has any message for the chefs who prepare the meals, he was thoughtful in his reply.

“I can think of a thousand things to say, but it really comes down to thank you,” he answers.

Contact Al Mancini at amancini@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlManciniVegas on Twitter and Instagram.