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 23rd, July 28th or August 25th. 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.
