Kitchen lending helps neighbors cook up holiday favorites without clutter
Moved to a retirement community? Still want to make your family’s favorite Thanksgiving side? The residents of Holly Creek Life Plan Community in Centennial might just have a solution.
When Wes and Jeri Couthen moved to Holly Creek, the couple already had a preference for minimalism. The transition offered them the chance to downsize, bringing with them only the most meaningful and functional items – including kitchen appliances, gadgets and utensils.
Residents pool their wares to create the Community Kitchen Lending Program
“Around two years ago, fellow resident Eve Glesne and I were talking,” Jeri explained, “and we came up with the idea of a community kitchen lending program.”
While many residents choose to take advantage of the community’s excellent dining options for their meals, as Jeri pointed out, “there are a lot of kitchen items that you don’t need often but would be nice to have once in a while,” especially during the holidays. “Every now and then that need arises.”
The Community Kitchen Lending Program Catalog
Currently, the program has around ten participants and offers neighbors with a booklet listing everything available to borrow. The program operates entirely on trust and neighborly goodwill: residents simply contact the item’s owner to borrow and arrange its return.
“It’s a little mix of everything,” Jeri explained. “Big things like food processors and crock pots and blenders. Somebody added a George Foreman Grill. Others contributed smaller items—mixing bowls, rolling pins, trays, racks, an air fryer. There’s even one listing for ‘many esoteric spices.’”
Jeri shares items from her ‘appliance garage’ of key kitchen gadgets, which she stores in the laundry room of their Vista apartment (pictured above). “I’ve loaned my crock pots and food processor, but I haven’t borrowed anything myself yet.”
The only guideline for listings? “We ask people not to include breakable heirlooms.”
Jeri believes other retirement communities—and even apartment complexes—could benefit from a similar program.
“Even if it’s not used all the time, just knowing it’s an option is fantastic. And it builds community. Here at Holly Creek, everyone does for each other what they can–that’s what make us so tight-knit. When residents see something they want to improve or try, leadership listens. Once people realize their ideas matter, it changes everything.”
– Jeri Couthen, Holly Creek resident
The kitchen lending program is just a poignant outgrowth of that same positive mindset. “It connects us with each other,” over the holidays and every other day.
