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| FeedMore's Community Kitchen, located in Richmond, prepares more than 3,000 nutritious meals each weekday. |
Stewed tomatoes. Macaroni. Stir-fried cabbage.
Haute cuisine it's not; but in the hands of Chef Amory James and his army of volunteers in hairnets, home-style recipes like these change lives. Every day, FeedMore's Community Kitchen in Richmond, Virginia, dishes out more than 3,000 healthy meals for the region's needy children, elderly and homebound clients. We asked Chef James for a few pro tips and took a look behind the scenes of this innovative nonprofit.
Meet Amory James
Chef James manages procurement and menu creation for FeedMore, an innovative organization formed by the merger of the Central Virginia Food Bank and Meals on Wheels Serving Central Virginia in 2008. The two nonprofits joined forces to solve food insecurity by stocking a regional food pantry, delivering fresh meals and running meal programs for children. 
A graduate of the Florida Culinary Institute in West Palm Beach, Chef James honed his skills in hotels, country clubs, higher education and healthcare settings before coming to FeedMore. There, his goal and mission is to deliver home-cooked flavor from a high-volume kitchen. While traditional meat-and-potatoes meals are always popular, he strives to introduce fresh flavors and keep the focus on fresh vegetables. Chef James is also one of the first field testers of the HBF1100S, the large-capacity culinary blender from Hamilton Beach® Commercial making its debut in the U.S. this month.
We caught up with Chef James recently to ask his best advice for foodservice managers in positions like his. Here's what he told us.
1. Perfect the basics.
So many chefs are focused on defining their own brand and style, he says, that the fundamentals of the craft get lost. Even when cooking meals that are limited by clients' medical needs, such as soft or salt-free recipes, culinary standards should stay high. "It's not just putting a piece of chicken and some water in a blender and just turning it on and letting it go," Chef James says. "It's about making it as eye-appealing and attractive as it can be, under whatever circumstances."
The HBF1100S is an essential piece of equipment in this process, he says. "It takes a pretty strong, well-built piece of equipment to be able to purée and pulse in a way that makes it look appealing. Speeds and power do matter."
2. Insist on consistency.
To perfect the basics, you must become a creature of habit, Chef James says: "Find one good way to do something and keep doing it." He ensures consistent food standards with extensive training and coaching. "I tell my supervisors, if you see it and it doesn't look right, correct it," he says. In his kitchen, there's no such thing as fixing something "next time." Whether it's done once or 10 times over, he says, "it's going to be right before it leaves here."
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| FeedMore volunteers package up Meals on Wheels meals for homebound seniors across 10 counties and four cities in Central Virginia. |
3. Exceed customers' expectations.
The Community Kitchen serves around 3,000 recipients across a staggeringly large geographic area in Central Virginia. Even dealing with such high volume and logistical challenges, Chef James refuses to deliver a meal that's anything less than delicious.
Even in a healthcare/nonprofit setting, he says, what's essential is "treating customers like you really need them and they don't need you." Chef James aims to wow clients with food quality every day. "It doesn't have to be perfect — but better than what I expected."
Hamilton Beach Brands (HBB), of which Hamilton Beach Commercial is part, is proud to have supported FeedMore since 2002 with annual food drives. 2015's efforts brought in more than $6,500 and 367 pounds of food, which combined provided the community with more than 33,000 meals.
Groups of employees have also spent the day in Chef James' kitchen, preparing food for school lunches and Meals on Wheels, or in FeedMore's warehouse, sorting donations. The experience is rewarding, says Dana Sykes, HBB's Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary. "It gives us an opportunity to do something meaningful together."
Want to find out more about FeedMore's activity in the community and how you can help? Visit their website at FeedMore.org.
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