Hello Friends!

As the SKIP season draws to a close, we’d like to recognize Chef Gina for another successful season. Gina has worked tirelessly for 6 months (including holidays) without a single day off! On her weekends and nights “off”, she does menu planning and ordering. Gina effectively manages over 100 volunteers with all different skill levels, and has broken service records this year. In the past 5 months, she has served a record number of over 18,500 meals! Gina, from the bottom of our hearts we thank you for your dedication to SKIP and your kindness to our community.

The SKIP Team

SKIP will serve the last meal of the 2022-23 season on Friday April 28th. We are actively working on providing our guests with a list of resources which will be distributed to you the last week of April. Please contact our office via email: skipfood@gmail.com or by phone: 508-487-8331 should you require assistance.

Now that warmer weather is upon us, Chef Gina is planning to do some grilling! Check out our menu to see what's on the 'barbie' this week. Plus, on the last day of the season we'll be grilling up burgers and dogs for all our guests!

www.skipfood.org/menu 

Chef Gina and "Souperman" Rick May developed this tasty Blueberry Vinaigrette!

Steve Conner starts his narrative with “I came out one month before my 60th birthday”. Steve knew he was gay early on and remembers the awkward "talk" given to him by his father when he was in high school. He was married to his wife for 27 years and had 3 daughters because “that’s what you were supposed to do” he states. It took 5 years for him to separate from his wife after coming out to her. He moved with his beloved Golden Retriever, Maggie, who gave him the unconditional love that he so needed at the time. 

Steve grew up in Brighton where he attended parochial schools from elementary through college at Holy Cross before he “fled to the seminary”. He studied 8 years to be a Jesuit priest (back then it took 15 years) before leaving. His next career took him to John Hancock where he started as a programmer and worked his way up to General Director where he managed 110 employees. After 27 years, they “retired” him, and Steve went back to college and earned his Masters in Library Sciences. He held positions in Wakefield and Danvers public libraries where he specialized in young adults and children’s books. He is an advocate for diversity in children's books in libraries and is very upset with the current book bans happening in our country. 

Steve joined the Gay Men’s Chorus in 2011 where he met his husband John, a founding member of the group. They toured with the chorus to Israel, Turkey, and South Africa. They were scheduled to march in the Gay Pride parade in Istanbul until Turkish police used a water cannon to disperse the group of marchers. The Gay Men’s Chorus performed at their wedding in 2015 at the Arlington Street Church (where the first gay marriage conducted in a church in Massachusetts took place). They live in Provincetown year-round with their two cats and 85 pound English Cream Golden Retriever, Winston.

Steve has volunteered in the past at his Lutheran Church and Synod Councils, on a committee for Seminary Approvals, and as a elected Library Trustee for the town of Reading. He volunteers two days a week for SKIP and once a week at the PUMC food pantry. In the off season you can find both Steve and John manning the ferry booth on the dock of the bay!

Steve is kind, compassionate, and a joy to volunteer with. Thanks for your service Steve, and your awesome hugs!

This month’s Board of Directors featured member is Mark Björstrom. Mark has been a SKIP volunteer for seven years and currently sits on the SKIP Board as the Vice-Chair/Treasurer. He was born and raised in beautiful and sunny San Diego, California where he began his life-time career in banking/investment operations, beginning on the teller line and moving into executive positions that brought him to San Francisco, Sacramento, Boston and New York City. Mark has a business administration degree from San Diego State University and an MBA from the University of San Diego.

Mark retired from banking in 2015 after seven years as a Managing Director at Citigroup. Upon his retirement, he looked for opportunities to “give back”, which brought him to SKIP. He has also been a member of Provincetown’s Finance Committee for many years, currently serving as the Chair, and he’s the President

of his neighborhood homeowners association comprised of 45 homes in the West End. Prior to SKIP, Mark held volunteer positions in Special Olympics (as a track & field coach), Mama’s Kitchen (delivering meals to homebound clients in the early days of the AIDS crisis) and as a Board Member of The Samaritans of Boston

(suicide prevention).

Mark met his husband, Joe Spada, almost 20 years ago when he relocated to Boston. They met on Match.com, having their first date at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, and have been together ever since. In 2014, Mark and Joe got married in one of their favorite places on the planet, their backyard in Ptown!! A few years ago, they bought a second home in Palm Springs, California, thus returning part-time to Mark’s roots in SoCal.

Lastly, Mark would like to give a huge SHOUT OUT to the wonderful volunteers, board and employees of SKIP!! What an incredible team!!

SKIP would like to thank several of its volunteers who have been arranging flowers on our dining room tables this season. The flowers make our dining room look beautiful and cheerful. A big THANK YOU goes to:

Rachel Peters

Valentine’s Day flowers

Steve Conner

Lunar New Year’s Lunch flowers

Christopher Buczek

St Patrick’s Day flowers

Jean Caviness & Phil Franchini

April flowers  

If you are interested in joining the SKIP Flowers Team for next year, please email us at skipsched@gmail.com  

We wish the very best to Paulo Salvador as he leaves the Office Coordinator job at SKIP to take a new position at the Town of Provincetown. We are grateful for his hard work, dedication and willingness to go the extra mile to make sure SKIP was ready to open every day. Thanks from all of us at SKIP.

For those of you that prefer to take out your SKIP lunch, we encourage you to bring your own bag. This will help us save on paper products which have become quite costly, and reduce waste. Bagging must be done at the table after the service line. Thanks in advance & remember: BYOBag!!

4/11  12:00 - 1 PM   Health Screening with Nurse Maralyn

4/25  12:00 - 1 PM   Health Screening with Nurse Maralyn

4/28  12:30 - 1:30PM   SKIP Last Day BBQ

www.skipfood.org/events

FOOD ASSISTANCE

If you or someone you know has food insecurities, please refer to the list of available food resources. If you’re unable to receive food from these sources, feel free to contact SKIP by email, skipfood@gmail.com, or by phone at 508-487-8331. We will do our best to aid anyone in need of food assistance.

HEALTH PROGRAM

The Program involves health monitoring by a registered nurse for any SKIP guest who wants it. A nurse will be on-site to check blood pressure, review medications and answer health-related questions. The program is completely confidential for every participant. Nurse Marilyn is back. Thanks to Nurse Lorraine who filled in for her wile she was away. The nurse comes the second and fourth Tuesday of each month. The nurse will be available from before lunch at 12:00pm until 1:00pm on those days. 

HOMELESS PREVENTION COUNCIL

Visit Mackenzie, the Provincetown Community Support Liaison, from 10-2, Monday’s, Tuesday’s & Thursday’s at the Provincetown United Methodist Church. She can help access heat/utility assistance, SNAP benefits, and housing programs. Reach her at 508.237.7042 or provincetown@hpccapecod.org. For more information, visit www.hpccapecod.org/provincetown-community-support

CROP SWAP

It is a program sponsored by the Ptown Health Department, the Ptown Public Library and SKIP. Crop Swap is Ptown’s source for fresh, uncut fruits and vegetables and is open year round. Anyone may donate fresh fruits and vegetables, and all are welcome to take what they need. All fruits and vegetables are free. Please bring your own bag.

Crop Swap is located in the Ptown Library, 356 Commercial Street, to the left as you enter the front doors. Hours are:

Mondays & Fridays: 10-4:30

Tuesdays, Wednesdays, & Thursdays: 10 - 7:30

Saturdays & Sundays: 1 - 4:30

There is a refrigerator for perishable items and shelves with bins for non-perishables, such as potatoes and squash. Be sure to take advantage of this valuable resource. The fresh produce goes fast so look for a posting on the Provincetown Community Space page on Facebook to know it is added.

GINA LARKIN, Executive Chef| TBD, Office Coordinator |

DIDIER CORALLO, Dishwasher/Utility Person |