Community members show up outside the doors of St. Peter’s Kitchen in Rochester’s Bull’s Head neighborhood every Tuesday and Thursday morning. Some are simply there for a good, nutritious meal; others need food help because they deal with illness or their families not having enough to eat for the week.
The rising temperatures during the summer months only heighten the frustrating reality that many people face who come to the kitchen: they can’t afford grocery store prices, medications and other basic needs. The closest full grocery, Tops Friendly Markets, is more than a 40-minute walk away.
A 2025 Feeding America report found that more than a quarter of residents in this part of Rochester lack consistent access to food.
The kitchen has served as the community’s answer to its issue for nearly four decades. It is open for lunch between noon and 1 p.m. from Monday through Saturday, and they have operated a food pantry program since 2018. The pantry is open on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m.
Dr. Nicole Gibbons, the kitchen’s executive director, is a Bull’s Head native who has worked in food service and nonprofit management. She said the town was once abundant in grocery stores with healthy food options including Star Market and Wegmans.
“Even the little corner stores, you could get healthy food,” Gibbons said. “Now, everything is a gas station and has high-sodium type foods and things like that. This gives us a chance to provide nutritious meals to people and provide resources for them to be able to get meals and things of that nature.”
The kitchen has more than tripled its daily audience since 2024 and served 378 people on May 26.
And the people who serve the Bull’s Head audience are all volunteers. Hundreds of volunteers come to the kitchen throughout the week to cut, package and hand food to the people in need. The food itself also comes from a wide range of community sources, including Wegmans, Tops, Foodlink and local church organizations.
Alan Searles, St. Peter’s Kitchen’s lunch program manager, oversees the volunteers’ roles and helps bring new and donated food items to the volunteers to prepare for their customers.
But Searles said the food they provide is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the kitchen’s impact.
“We do Christmas drives, toy drives, like our whole prep area will be full of toys for babies all the way to teenagers, and we do that every year,” Searles said. “We get donations from everybody (in Rochester), so there is no shortage of anything that we get at any time, because we’re fully stocked.”
Amy Mincer, the kitchen’s director of community services, brings outside resources for her community. During the summertime, Mincer works to get access to the Department of Human Services to help with SNAP benefits and the Department of Motor Vehicles to give access for non-driver’s identification cards and more.
“As simple as it sounds to us, $15 is a lot to somebody who doesn’t have any ID or anything like that, or any source of income,” Mincer said.
Volunteers and employees alike at the kitchen make personal connections with the community. Mincer’s office also serves as a place of confiding for customers who come in with issues on their minds such as family trauma and addiction.
“A lot of times, I’ve had to excuse myself for a second because they’re mentally breaking down at that point, and I see them in me,” Mincer said. “I’ll be like, ‘You know what, I’m going to give you a minute so that I can regroup’ and not fall apart on them because I have to be the stronger one. Running the operations is nothing, it’s dealing with people’s emotions.”
For more information about St. Peter’s Kitchen, visit https://www.stpeterskitchen.org/.
— C.J. Leathers is a news reporting intern at the Democrat and Chronicle for summer 2026. He covers the Bull’s Head, Joseph Avenue and North Clinton neighborhoods, focusing on whether residents have received the support and investment promised by government agencies and other organizations.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Demand grows at St. Peter’s Kitchen in Bull’s Head
Reporting by CJ Leathers, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle / Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By CJ Leathers, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle | USA TODAY Network
