‘All I asked for was a new dishwasher’
by Carol Crump
There’s a new plaque on the wall at the Central Wyoming Senior Center. It honors Dietary Manager Karen Kwedor, the woman who has kept the seniors who visit the center fed for 32 years.
Kwedor’s first experience in food service was in a restaurant in Moorcroft. In 1968, she went to work at Campbell County Memorial Hospital, commuting each day from Moorcroft. At that time, only Cheyenne and Casper had certified dieticians, so someone came to the hospital once a month to teach her dietary management.
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When her husband was transferred back to Casper in 1975, Kwedor went to work in the kitchen of Bellaire Manor, the senior care facility that is now Poplar Living Center. It was just a job in the beginning, but Kwedor said seeing nursing home patients made her realize that good nutrition could keep people out of such facilities.
“I would have gotten fired if I’d been there longer,” she said.
Within a year, Kwedor had moved to Central Wyoming Senior Services that served about 40 senior citizens at the First Baptist Church on Fifth and Beech Streets. She kept her job as dietary manager through the move to the former site in City Park and to the new Senior Center at 1831 East Fourth Street, outlasting a number of directors who each had different ideas of how to manage the facility.
The newly remodeled kitchen is called “Karen’s Kitchen” in honor of her years of service.
“As long as I’m healthy, and know what I’m doing, I’ll keep working,” said the 71-year-old.
Her husband of 53 years retired at 62, but she doesn’t anticipate following his example.
“I don’t like to do nothing,” she said.
A staff of friends
Kwedor’s eight-hour day starts at 7 or 7:30 a.m. when she goes through the day’s two menus and decides what needs to be done to prepare 150-225 meals for the Senior Center and supplies for its two satellite locations in Mills and at Five Trails Day Care.
The center also cooks entrees to be frozen that people who eat at the center can purchase to take home and fresh bakes most of its rolls and bread. She “puts her two-cents in” on how to cook the daily fare.
Kwedor’s right hands are women she has trained to cook “from scratch,” and most have been with her a long time. Kim Cooper, Kwedor’s daughter, was an accountant who came in one day to fill in, discovered she was a natural baker, and stayed.
Johanna Winters has been preparing entrees for nine years and Lucy Young has been in the kitchen with Kwedor for 20 years. The kitchen “assistant to the assistant,” Mona Fernandez is a 23-year-old single mother who has worked at the Senior Center for three years.
Word of mouth generally brings new help and the staff is made up of “friends working together,” Kwedor said.
In 32 years, the Senior Center’s dietary manager has seen changes in food service. Eating habits are different from the calorie- and carbohydrates-rich meals she used to put on her monthly menus. She’s cut back on fats and salts and uses canola or olive oil.
Each menu is based on the likes—and dislikes—of Kwedor’s clients.
One of the previous directors, who was from California, had a fit about the liver and onions and ham and beans that appear regularly on the menu, but those two items and Kwedor’s oven-fried chicken are among the most popular items.
Menus are prepared about two months in advance, and each menu is checked by University of Wyoming’s “Cent$ible Nutrition” dietician, Karla Case.
Kwedor also is responsible for the grocery shopping list and billing. She keeps enough food on hand at all times in the kitchen’s freezers and store rooms for two weeks, just in case the trucks that deliver from Denver can’t get through.
The Senior Center no longer gets government commodities, so Kwedor uses a variety of suppliers, including U.S. Foods and Albertsons.
With the new equipment in her remodeled kitchen, Kwedor can’t think of a thing she needs. She’s still using a warmer that was part of the original equipment in the church, but the 30-year-old mixer has been replaced.
The new kitchen equipment includes a quick chiller to prevent food borne illnesses, a roll-in refrigerator, a steamer for vegetables and more storage and freezer space.
“All I asked for was a new dishwasher,” Kwedor said.