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Celebrations Catering offers meal specials, benefits charities

By George Pelletier - Milford Bureau Chief | Nov 14, 2020

Fred Manheck, left, appears on WMUR’s Cook’s Corner alongside co-anchor Sean MacDonald. (Courtesy photo from WMUR)

NASHUA – Pivoting has become a critical word in describing how businesses- practically any business – conducts their day-to-day dealings.

Celebrations Catering, a staple in the Greater Nashua area for more than three decades, is offering new food and delivery techniques while providing charitable donations to local organizations.

For years, Celebrations was located in downtown Nashua, next to the Main Street Methodist Church, and remains a favorite for folks who are looking for a wedding or corporate caterer or just a family meal or BBQ.

Naturally, with COVID-19, Celebrations has had to pivot, doing things differently, but staking their reputation on quality service and great food.

Now with the holidays approaching, Celebrations owner Fred Manheck has introduced new ways for people to enjoy catering at a time when public safety is paramount.

“We’ve been doing quite a few things differently,” he said. “We’ve more or less directed production to smaller amounts of food. We’re doing individual meals, both hot and cold, through online ordering.”

Manheck said since the pandemic has yet to turn a corner, they’ve opened what is known in the industry as a “ghost kitchen.”

“That’s a kitchen that is not attached to a restaurant,” he explained. “When you get right down to it, catering is a ghost kitchen.

As an off-premise caterer, we’ve been a ghost kitchen all along.”

Celebrations has retooled its massive kitchen to produce food in a completely different way.

“It’s not necessarily easy,” Manheck said. “But what we are doing is working with many companies, who are offering their employees a gift. We just provided 650 dozen bagels for a company, with flavored cream cheese. That’s a lot of bagels.”

Next week Celebrations will deliver 600 pies.

“Not all kitchens have the ability to change like ours can,” Manheck pointed out. “We have a large kitchen. We have a lot of equipment. We can turn things around and have a lot more refrigeration than the average restaurant. Maybe even triple.”

With online ordering, Manheck said that Celebrations will be offering a Thanksgiving special as people continue to gather, but in much smaller numbers.

“We have a complete turkey dinner for five,” he said. “It’s $125, and we donate five dollars to a charity of their choice. They will actually select their charity right online.”

Celebrations has donated food and services to dozens of charities throughout the state, during its long history.

“There have also been a number of charities that Celebrations has worked with throughout the years,” he said. “We’ve been attached to Nashua PAL for as long as I can remember. And at least as long as Shaun Nelson has been there.”

Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth Hitchcock (CHAD) is also a charity that Celebrations has supported, and recently, the catering firm assisted Marguerite’s Place in Nashua with their virtual gala, creating and delivering charcuterie boards and bottles of wine to folks who made a donation to Marguerite’s Place.

“We delivered the boards and wines to attendees, at their homes, some who were having a mini-watch party,” Manheck said.

For this year, Manheck said there may or not be few small house parties, but with the COVID climate, he’s not expecting many.

“I think we might drop off some food, but that’s about it,” he said.

As for other events this year, including weddings, many were rescheduled from the spring, while other special occasions were postponed.

“It was busy,” Manheck said. “But it was ‘a hard busy’ and I think we handled our events very well.”

That said, Manheck had to shuffle some events this summer, but for the summer of 2021, things are looking very busy.

“Bookings for next year are incredible,” he said. “We’ve already got a few dates that are completely booked. But we’re positioned well and rental companies such as ours are going to be busy. It’s really the only way that people can host an event.”

For more information or to place an order, call (603) 598-5177 or visit www.celebrationsmenu.com.

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