Customers line sidewalk for Simone’s Kitchen reopeningby Melanie Lekocevic / April 18, 2024Related Posts
GOOD NEWS!: Senior Projects packs the house for soup fundraiser
By Melanie Lekocevic
Capital Region Independent Media
RAVENA — The Soups for Seniors contest and fundraiser was held for the first time in the village, and the event packed the house.
The Senior Projects of Ravena event was so popular, several contestants ran out of soup within the first hour.
Soups for Seniors was an inaugural event in the community designed to showcase the senior center and raise money for the facility.
The event was a collaboration between the village and Senior Projects.
“This is a spin-off of a fundraiser I used to go to before COVID,” said Village Trustee Caitlin Appleby, who came up with the idea. “I really liked the sense of community that it built, so I thought we could do it here on a smaller scale. It’s win-win for everybody.”
Seventeen contestants signed up to compete in the soup contest, with one of them, Tracy Douglas from Rail to River Brewery, entering two different soups. Guests paid $5 for admission and were given samples of each of the 18 soups, ranging from seafood chowder to Zuppa soup to ham-and-potato soup.
Gabby Ambrose volunteered for the event and said it was busy from the moment the doors opened.
“We have had well over 100 people here and it’s just halfway through,” Ambrose said. “I think it’s wonderful — we should have more events like this throughout the year, just small things that aren’t expensive for the village but also aren’t expensive for the community members that want to join in. It’s just a good time.”
Appleby co-organized Soups for Seniors with Lakken Kovacik, assistant director at Senior Projects. All funds raised Saturday will go towards the center’s needs.
“The proceeds will go to the senior center, for whatever is needed,” Kovacik said. “We need some new vehicles — we are working with a couple of different entities to get money for new Meals on Wheels vehicles. All the money we raise goes to the senior center.”
The center’s Meals for Wheels program — which delivers lunches and dinners to the community’s homebound residents — reaches far beyond the boundaries of Ravena, and puts a lot of mileage on its delivery vans.
“We do a congregate meal program on Mondays and Thursdays for dinner, and Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays for lunch at Van Allen Apartments in Glenmont, and we also do two buildings in Albany, one of which, Parkview Apartments, had a catastrophe with flooding and electrical, and at least 25 people were displaced to the Comfort Inn. We deliver meals there, too.”
Supporting the village’s older residents is important, Appleby said, and shining a light on the senior center and its needs will go a long way to doing that.
“Our elder population is a very important population and I think they get overlooked a lot,” Appleby said. “I think this puts a focus and a light on a population that definitely needs help and support. And to me, this is community building.”
The senior center, which is available to rent for birthday parties, bridal showers and other events, was also showcased, she said.
Rebecca Flach, from Hopefull Life Center, made a ham-and-potato soup that highlighted ingredients available at Helping Harvest, a food assistance program for people in need of a helping hand.
“I made the soup using ingredients from Helping Harvest to demonstrate the variety and quality of the food products that we have there,” Flach said.
Mayor Bill Misuraca, owner of the Halfway House Tavern, said it was gratifying to see so many residents attend the event.
“It’s a huge turnout,” said Misuraca, who also entered a seafood chowder into the contest. “We are so glad to see the community rally up for the seniors — that is so important.”
Some of the soup entries were made by restaurateurs, but many were family favorites made by the community’s home chefs, like 15-year-old Hayden Hyslop, who made Zuppa soup.
Many entrants said they participated in the event to help out an important community resource.
“This is to help out the community and the seniors,” said Jaime Hopkins from Trackside Pizza and More, who made a clam chowder.
Yvonne Shackleton made a coconut curry lentil soup from a vegan recipe she found online, and Deana Ferrusi cooked up an Italian escarole with white bean soup.
“It’s a twist on a family recipe,” Ferrusi said. “My grandfather’s favorite food was escarole and beans, and I just played with it a little bit.”
Tracy Douglas, co-owner of Rail to River Brewing, made Knoephla, a favorite in North Dakota that uses chicken and tiny dumplings.
“It came over with the Russian-Germans,” Douglas said. “They settled in North Dakota and because North Dakota is so full of root vegetables, grains and chicken, in the middle of winter, when it’s so cold, this is a stick-to-your ribs meal for them. It is totally indigenous to North Dakota. Knoephla means ‘tiny buttons,’ and that is what the dumplings look like.”
Each guest was given five tickets they could hand out to their favorite soups, and when all was said and done, the winner of the 2023 Soups for Seniors contest was Shelly Fitch, who made a corn chowder. Fitch was awarded the prize money of $200 and donated it back to the senior center.
Saturday’s event raised $1,000 for Senior Projects of Ravena.
“I’m really proud of the turnout — it was amazing for the first time we have done something like this,” Appleby said. “The community really showed up. It was very heartwarming to see everyone smiling and laughing and enjoying each other’s company. And who doesn’t love soup?”
The Retired Investor: Precious metals normally fall in September
By Bill Schmick
For Capital Region Independent Media
As one of the best-performing areas of the financial markets this year, gold and silver have been added to many investors’ portfolios. And while every dip has been used as an excuse to buy, bulls should hold off a bit when making any new purchases.
The price of gold is up more than 20% and silver gained over 17% so far this year. Despite the sector’s performance, there are many portfolio managers out there who won’t touch precious metals and probably never will. “Too speculative,” “impossible to analyze,” and “we are not in the business of gambling,” are all explanations I have heard through the years.
Granted, gold is not for everyone, but something must be said for its appeal as a hard currency since it has functioned as such for thousands of years.
I am not here to proselytize, but to point out that there are investment cycles for most commodities, and we happen to be in one for precious metals. This time around, some of the typical reasons for owning gold are once again present. Geopolitical uncertainty comes to mind with actual shooting wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, either of which might trigger a more serious conflict with nuclear implications. As such, the safe-haven status of gold is an appealing reason to hedge against this geopolitical risk.
Purchases by central banks have been one of the biggest drivers this year with buying hitting a record in the first quarter of 2024. Bank of America estimates that gold has now surpassed the euro as the world’s largest reserve asset after the U.S. dollar.
The threat of inflation continues to hang over the world’s economies and precious metals have long been considered an inflation hedge. Governments continue to spend, especially here in the U.S., reviving fears that whoever may win the coming elections, their policies will lead to a revival in the inflation rate.
If you also add fears of a falling dollar, brought on by a ballooning debt load, that makes gold and silver something tangible that investors can hold on to and offers an appealing alternative to a stock market at record highs.
While gold is the go-to precious metal most buy, silver has also been purchased for many of the same reasons. Its price has been linked to gold in the past, but to a lesser extent recently as its industrial usage climbs. About 55%-60% of silver production is dedicated to the industrial area. This percentage is increasing with the popularity of electric vehicles where silver is in demand for its conductive qualities in EV batteries and photovoltaics.
Silver is normally a byproduct of copper mining and as such its price is heavily dependent on demand for copper. Why is this important? China is the world’s largest marginal buyer of copper, so Chinese demand for copper sets the price of that commodity. This year, China is battling with a slowing economy, a major real estate problem, and waning consumer demand. As such, copper demand is anemic at best, and lower copper prices reflect that situation. The price of silver, therefore, is subject to the countervailing forces of a bullish gold price and an offsetting weakening copper price.
Interestingly, much of the recent demand for gold has been attributed to demand from China’s central bank as well as retail buying in the form of small gold beads by Chinese investors who are wary of their stock market. Western investors have also piled into gold with physically backed gold funds and have seen three straight months of inflows.
Given the bullish background on gold, and to some extent silver, why do I advise caution heading into September? If one studies the 10-year seasonal trend of gold beginning on Labor Day weekend out until Sept. 28, the gold price has declined in every year of the past 10 years. In the last 15 years, there were only three up years and 12 down years. Silver’s record is almost as negative with four of the past five years suffering declines in September.
Does this mean you should sell all your gold, silver and the mining stocks that produce precious metals? No, but I do recommend that you just wait to add new purchases, i.e. buy the dip.
Remember that the Fed is expected to begin an interest rate-cutting cycle on Sept. 18. Gold futures have rallied an average of 6% within 30 days of the first interest rate cut after a hiking cycle begins. At the end of September, gold has rallied on average 13 out of the past 15 years. There is often a slight pause in early November (elections?) and then tends to rise from Thanksgiving into the New Year.
In this case, the data says gold and silver have a much better than average chance of falling in price in September. As for silver bulls, I would keep a close eye on the copper price and data coming out of China’s economy.
Bill Schmick is the founding partner of Onota Partners, Inc., in the Berkshires. Bill’s forecasts and opinions are purely his own and do not necessarily represent the views of Onota Partners, Inc. (OPI). None of his commentary is or should be considered investment advice. Anyone seeking individualized investment advice should contact a qualified investment adviser. None of the information presented in this article is intended to be and should not be construed as an endorsement of OPI, Inc. or a solicitation to become a client of OPI. The reader should not assume that any strategies, or specific investments discussed are employed, bought, sold or held by OPI. Direct your inquiries to Bill at 1-413-347-2401 or email him at bill@schmicksretiredinvestor.com. for more of Bill’s insights. Investments in securities are not insured, protected or guaranteed and may result in loss of income and/or principal. This communication may include opinions and forward-looking statements, and we can give no assurance that such beliefs and expectations will prove to be correct.
