EAST LONGMEADOW – Thanks to the combined efforts of a local caterer and the East Longmeadow Knights of Columbus, seniors in town have been able to pick up a free, prepared meal once a week since March 28.

“The line started at 12, we started serving at 2,” Richard Freccero, a member of Knights of Columbus – Holy Trinity 4306, told Reminder Publishing about the first day of the meal distribution program. Freccero said that Saturday he and fellow Knights Joe Piccuirro and Bob Granger – owners of 3 Guys Catering – and Donal Quinn and Anthony Chiusano, cooked, packed and curbside delivered 136 baked chicken diners to the cars of waiting seniors from their 26 Baldwin St. location. “We had 14 meals left over; we donated them to the East Longmeadow Police Department,” Freccero shared.

The Stay Safe/Eat Well Program is the latest community project for this religious organization, which also provides $7,500 in annual scholarships to East Longmeadow High School seniors, and has contributed $2,000 to Quarry Hill congregate housing, and $3,000 to the outreach program at St Michael’s Church.

“Helping others is what the Knights do,” Freccero said. Funding to initiate Stay Safe/Eat Well came through a vote by the Knights to tap into its charity account, setting aside $1,000 to begin the program, with the provision to continue the funding to keep the program going for up to eight weeks. “We raise money throughout the year [for charity programs] and we’re accessing that account” for this work, he said.

The weekly meals are available on a first come, first served basis to any East Longmeadow resident 60 years of age or older. There is no sign-up required, but there is a limit of two meals per car, according to information on the Pleasant View Senior Center Facebook page. Distribution takes place between 2 and 4 p.m. on a day announced by the Knights each week.

Freccero said as professional caterers, Piccuirro and Granger are in charge of the meal planning. “Joe and Bob decide; we’ve done baked chicken [the first week], Chicken Piccata with roasted potatoes and corn and for [April 6] pasta and meatballs,” he said. “Every week the two caterers look at what is best for seniors and for our charity work.”

All meals are prepared and packaged under strict guidelines issued by the town’s Director of Public Health Aimee Petrosky, Freccero said. “We take our temperatures, we have masks and gloves and we are social distancing,” he explained. “[The seniors] pull up to our side door and we deliver to their back seat or trunk and they drive off. We don’t even have them get out of the car.”

Freccero said the plan is to offer the senior meal service toward the end of every week; the exception being Holy Week, when he said the meal would be prepared and served on April 6 so as not to conflict with Good Friday and the Easter weekend. The Knights, he said, have coordinated with Carolyn Brennan at the Pleasant View Senior Center to notify the town’s seniors of each week’s meal date through a robocall and a posting on the Senior Center’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com/ELSeniors/. The weekly meal distribution date is also posted on the Knights’ Facebook page, www.facebook.com/kofc4306/