Community Dinner Needs Hosts

Did you know that many church feeding programs, such as St. Anthony’s and Glide, do not serve dinner on Saturday nights?  Saturday Night can be the hardest time for those who need a meal to find one.  Welcome tries to at least somewhat fill this gap on the second and fourth Saturday of each month by hosting a Community Dinner at Old First Presbyterian.  At each dinner we serve 200 - 300 people a nutritious dinner in a warm, respectful environment. 

This meal is a cut above many other free meals in the City.  The meal is served restaurant style to our guests at their tables. Sometimes, one of our guests will offer to entertain the others by playing the grand piano located in the hall where we serve dinner.  When the serving slows down, we eat with our guests and we encourage our volunteers to do the same.  Often we have socks or other clothing or toiletries to offer our guests. 

Unsurprisingly, we have seen an uptick in the number of guests coming to the Community Dinners over the last year.  We are doing all right on volunteers to serve (though we could use a few more!) but what we really need is more groups to buy food and prepare the meal.  The kitchen at Old First is well outfitted and there is always an experienced person on hand to help volunteers with whatever they need.  Right now we are looking for groups to cover any of the fourth Saturdays through the summer:  June 23^rd, July 28^th or August 25^th.  We can accommodate large groups, or if you only have a few people to cook, we will get additional volunteers to help you serve. 

If you like the idea of providing a meal when it is most needed and of serving in an environment that respects the dignity of our guests give us a call at 650-673-3572 or email us at sfcare@saintpaulus.org.