Chicken Pie Supper feathers nest for Andover scholarships

Supper from above

A view from Andover Town Hall’s balcony. All photos by The Chester Telegraph.

© 2015 — Telegraph Publishing LLC

It’s chicken pie, not chicken pot pie,” explained Bonnie Zipeto as servers whisked away the remains of the 5 p.m. seating and kitchen volunteers prepared for the 6 o’clock crowd. “It doesn’t have peas or other vegetables in the dish.” Whatever the recipe, Andover’s 11th Annual Chicken Pie Supper on Saturday evening brought out scores of hungry people and sent more dinners home as take out and deliveries for shut-ins.

According to Zipeto, the dinner – originally held at the Grange Hall — was a tradition years ago with the proceeds going to hire a dentist for the children of the town.  The dentist chair remains on display at the Grange Hall.

After a hiatus following the merger of Andover schools with Chester’s, the town brought back the supper to fund scholarships to colleges and trade schools for Andover students.  With recipes dating to the 1950s, a host of volunteers cook and serve chicken and gravy topped with a biscuit as well as sides of mashed potatoes, cole slaw and squash. The meal was topped off by 55 pies of many flavors: pecan, lemon meringue, lemon cream, chocolate cream, pumpkin, apple and berry.

On Saturday, Town Hall was laid out with tables and chairs to seat about 95 and as the doors opened for the second of three seatings, volunteers escorted diners to their seats, filling each table with people who might start the dinner as strangers but finish dessert as friends.  Almost immediately, servers began delivering plates of food and the room became noticeably quieter.

When it was all over, 270 dinners had been served or sent to homes, according to Town Clerk Linda Bargfrede, who was still tallying the addition to the scholarship fund.  Although there were fewer diners this year than last, Bargfrede said, “We’re happy.”

Leftover food was donated to Our Place in Bellows Falls. Click a photo to launch the gallery.

 

 

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