Trouble Mandeson

“I've developed friendships with so many people while volunteering here as well as making important social connections with local business owners, politicians, and artists.'

Originally from California, Trouble moved to Greenfield nearly 20 years ago. After a chance encounter with Chef Kirsten in 2018, volunteering at the Café became a regular part of Trouble's life for many years. Now, she's less regular, but pops in now and then to lend a hand. "My love, loyalty and commitment to Stone Soup Cafe is still strong," she says.

"I consider Stone Soup Café part of my extended family. I love nothing more than mincing garlic or peeling potatoes while holding a conversation with a young teen, or an immigrant from another country, or someone I've seen around town but never spoken to. The conversations flow between people who start as strangers and end the day as comrades, working together with a common goal. Then there are the patrons of the cafe who are equally friendly and some whose familiar faces I've seen week after week and year after year. Some become volunteers themselves. They, too, are part of the family at Stone Soup Cafe.”

“I've developed friendships with so many people while volunteering here as well as making important social connections with local business owners, politicians, and artists. I find volunteering to be an extremely satisfying way to spend my time, especially when it's around cooking and food. I'm very extroverted and social and it feeds my soul to make new connections and to do things for the people in my community.”

Outside of her volunteer work, you can find Trouble sharing culinary adventures with her beloved wife, indulging in mystery novels, doodling cartoons or painting pictures, doing yard work, and working as a personal care attendant (PCA). She also writes a monthly food column for the Montague Reporter and is a chef for LasagnaLove.org, providing free lasagnas to the community.

“Even if I don't show up to volunteer at the cafe every week, it doesn't matter how long I've been gone, I show up, I'm among friends, and off we go feeding people.”