CHESTERFIELD — Lillian Bisbee, who chairs the Council on Aging, hasn’t spent her gift certificate to the Chesterfield General Store and Cafe just yet, but she’s looking forward to it.
“I’ll probably wait until just before Christmas,” said Bisbee. “And then go up and get a meal for me and my son.”
Bisbee is one of more than 200 seniors in town who have been given gift certificates to the Chesterfield General Store, courtesy of the COA, with a value totaling more than $3,000.
“It’s the town’s way of saying Merry Christmas. Or Happy Holidays, as it were,” said Janice Gibeau, the director of the COA.
And the General Store’s participation is just one of the ways that the business has tried to help out the community during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I just felt like we hadn’t been doing enough,” said Greg Monette, who owns the store and restaurant with his wife, Kristen Hanley.
Normally the COA hosts a meal and celebration during the holiday season. “With the virus, that’s more challenging,” said Gibeau.
Instead, it was decided that $15 gift certificates to the Chesterfield General Store would be given to every resident aged 70 or older. The certificates were mailed out last week and have no expiration date on them.
“They can use that money directly for prepared meals at the store,” said Monette.
The Chesterfield General Store and Cafe opened in December of last year, and Gibeau said that it has been embraced by the community.
“It’s a very popular place,” she said. “People go there all the time.”
Monette gave credit for the gift certificate idea to Gibeau and praised her as a community leader, noting that he always says yes to her requests.
“She’s a battle axe really,” he said. “We love her to death.”
The store will receive reimbursement for the used certificates it returns to the COA and has received no money upfront.
As for what the gift certificates have been used for so far, Monette said that breads and baked goods have been popular choices.
The Chesterfield General Store, in addition to selling grocery items, offers an array of prepared food options including pizzas and sandwiches, as well as baked goods made onsite.
Additionally, Monette said that during the pandemic the store started offering prepared meals, at a reduced price, which people can finish at home, such as lasagna, chicken tikka masala and pan-seared salmon.
“It was out of solidarity for essential workers,” said Monette.
The store has also been donating food, typically bread and produce, to the town’s Community Cupboard, which was established during the pandemic to provide food to Chesterfield’s residents at no charge.
Monette shared how the pandemic hit him personally early on: His father, Theodore Monette, died of complications from COVID-19 after being infected at the Soldiers’ Home in Holyoke.
“No one’s accepting responsibility,” Monette said of the outbreak at the Soldiers’ Home. “I think that’s shameful.”
Theodore Monette was a veteran of the Vietnam War and the first Gulf War and a retired Army colonel. He also had a career in emergency management, becoming a deputy director at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. As part of his work at FEMA, he was in charge of federal response and recovery operations after the 9/11 attack in New York City.
Monette said he is trying to honor his father’s legacy in how he runs the store during the pandemic, noting that his father had a commitment to selfless acts.
“We just try to emulate that,” he said. “We’re going to be there through anything.”
As for the future, Monette said that he hopes to expand the Chesterfield General Store in 2021, although right now he’s got his hands full just maintaining it. And he said that the store couldn’t keep going “without our community.”
“The store has really filled a need,” he said.
Bera Dunau can be reached at bdunau@gazettenet.com.