Cura Hospitality cooks up a fundraising dinner at The Sisters of St. Joseph community

Faith, Field and Feast is an annual fall event held by the Sisters of St. Joseph in Baden, Pa., to raise funds that support the Sisters’ community, including its extensive gardens. This year, Cura Hospitality, an Elior company and the community’s foodservice provider, planned and executed the $165 per person dinner, plucking some of the produce right from those gardens.

The apiary on the grounds provided honey and the remaining ingredients, including the meats, were also hyperlocal, sourced from nearby farms and purveyors.

“We usually make a monetary donation as well as a donation of our time to the fundraiser,” says Jon Norris, district manager for Cura. For the Sept. 18 dinner, he and Foodservice Director Fred Blosat planned the menu, while Dennis Rivera, regional culinary chef, prepped and supervised the cooking.

The 100 guests had a choice of three entrees: a pan-seared duck breast with orange sauce, grilled marinated pork tenderloin with apple chutney and smoked brisket with a honey barbecue drizzle. The proteins were sourced from Milk House Meats, a local butcher; the honey came from Sister Lyn Szymkiewicz’s beehive in the community’s apiary and the apples from the property’s orchard.

Beets, tomatoes, arugula and fresh herbs for the salads were also homegrown, picked from the Mother House Twin Trinity Garden, as were the grilled vegetables on the charcuterie platters.

The event proceeds support the Sisters’ gardens, apiary and henhouse, as well as the community’s Sister St. Mark Garden Fund partners, with donations going to many of the area’s food banks.

Norris oversees 12 communities for Cura in the area, most of which focus on long term and acute care.