Harvest on Main’s Prepared Foods Chef, Chris Condrin, reopens the kitchen door at 808 Main Street
Chris Condrin remembers the first time he met Bonnie, Second Harvest’s Founder and Executive Director. His family was grieving the loss of his uncle, Tom Hartman, a brother of the Catholic church and pillar of the Sharpsburg community who had passed away after battling cancer. For more than a decade, Brother Tom’s Bakery had been the beating heart of Sharpsburg’s Main Street – and of Chris’ extended family. Chris and his grandfather had put in the gas line and done all of the construction themselves. Chris’ grandmother was the main cashier at the bakery. She had tabs for neighbors who were short on cash, and a smile for everyone who walked through the door.
On this particular day, Chris’ family had gathered in grief at the shuttered bakery to make pierogies together one last time before the building changed hands: Second Harvest would be acquiring the space to develop a nonprofit fresh food market. Bonnie happened by the bakery as the family was pinching pierogies together. It was a small moment with a big impact: This fall – less than a year after that chance encounter – Chris walked through the door of his uncle’s former bakery ready to start his new job as Harvest on Main’s Prepared Foods Chef & Deli Manager.
“My uncle would be so happy to know that these great people [at Second Harvest] are the ones who bought his building,” Chris says. The things Brother Tom aspired to – providing quality, affordable eats and being a neighborhood hub for Sharpsburg – are key ingredients in Harvest on Main’s recipe for success, too. They’re also the things that make the vision for Harvest on Main so powerful to Chris. “It’s about getting to know people. Being there for the community. Giving people a positive place to come, where you’re wanted,” says Chris. ”People can share their struggles and joys. It will be a bright spot in the town – It’s everything my uncle wanted.”
