KITCHEN WISDOM

Dona Fragnoli grabs an apron from a kitchen drawer at the City Mission of Schenectady. Smiling, she hands it to her sous chef for the day: Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger. All around her, about a dozen women chat or peer over the day’s selected recipe: roasted butternut squash noodles tossed in a garlic marinara sauce.

On Feb. 22, Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger paid a visit to Kitchen Wisdom, a weekly cooking class focused on food, faith and fellowship for the residents of the City Mission’s Family Life Center (FLC), a short- and long-term homeless shelter for women and children.

“It’s great to be around someone who sees Jesus in everybody,” Fragnoli said of the Bishop. “Not everybody is able to do that.”

“I’ve never met a bishop before, not from the Catholic Church,” said Corissa Lloyd, junior staff member and resident at FLC. “I’ve been to Catholic Church but I’ve never met a bishop up close and personal, and to cook with him and to cook for him too, it was cool.”

A volunteer at the City Mission for years, Fragnoli started offering a weekly class at the center in August 2021. After going through her own health-food journey and revamping her diet, Fragnoli wanted to offer a class with easy, low-cost and healthy recipes that helped her feel better.

Plus, good food and good company is an offer that’s hard to refuse.

“I think it’s wonderful that the Bishop came,” Fragnoli said. “A lot of these women have not really been valued in their lives, and to have an important figure in the community to come to visit, for no other reason other than to share a meal with them, is great.”

Bishop Scharfenberger chopped onions and worked alongside other residents who prepared the sauce, washed utensils, and “zoodled” butternut squash with a spiralizer. At the end, the Bishop said an Irish blessing for the group after their meal.

“(Fragnoli) has got some amazing tips on healthy eating,” said Sarah Semo, junior staff member and resident. “The recipes are right up my alley because I love squash and sweet potatoes.”

One time the women cooked Shepherd’s pie substituted with sweet potatoes, another recipe was a tomato-based soup with kale and sweet apple chicken sausage. Around Christmas, they baked peppermint mocha cookies. The best part? Eating everything when they’re done.

“It’s inspiring for me to be even a small part of their journey,” Fragnoli said of the classmates. “To show up and say, ‘I need help,’ holy moly. It’s inspiring. I see such beauty in these women.”

Semo, 34, has regularly attended Kitchen Wisdom since coming to the City Mission in September 2021.

“I was in a horrible place,” she recalled. “I was an addict and I relapsed when I lost my job due to COVID. I was working for the NYS Education Department and I started drinking and doing drugs.”

In July, Semo developed a serious infection in her leg and joints that landed her in the hospital, barely able to walk. “While I was in there I realized that God allowed that situation to happen so I could clear my mind, and I realized I couldn’t live like that anymore,” Semo recalled.

A week prior, Lloyd, 47, came to the City Mission from Hope House in Albany. Along with Semo, the two women joined the Mission’s Bridges to Freedom program, a life-skill and discipleship program to help get their goals back on track. The two graduated early this year and now work at the center.

Lloyd, who also attends Kitchen Wisdom regularly, always stays afterward to help Fragnoli clean up. “I’ve been cooking since I was 12,” she added. “I used to stand at my stove and watch my aunt and my grandmother cook.”

Lloyd hopes to have her own restaurant one day, one that offers local homeless men and women a place to get a free meal without having to go through the backdoor to get it.

“I’m just grateful to be here,” she said, “I’m truly grateful to be here and blessed to meet a bishop.”