SOME OF OUR FAVORITE LOCAL STORIES.
Agency spotlight: Calvary Baptist soup Kitchen
This hot meal along with turkey and ham sandwiches, granola bars, bottles of water, fruit cups, and hard-boiled eggs is loaded into bags and then packed into boxes by volunteers before being loaded into a fleet of vehicles and distributed through downtown Spokane to those in need of a free, hot, nutritious meal.
For close to 11 years, prior to the Covid 19 crisis, the Calvary Baptist Soup Kitchen, part of Spokane’s oldest primarily Black church, served a sit-down full course weekly Saturday lunch at their downtown Spokane location.
One of over 260 meal programs and food pantries that partner with Second Harvest to provide healthy food to those in need in the Inland NW, Calvary Baptist was forced to adapt and change the entirety of how they serve their clients but the spirit of giving, the thoughtful approach, and the emphasis on tasty food remains fully intact despite the pandemic challenges.
Their solution to the public health crisis? Create a mobile, delivery style, to-go soup kitchen.
“When church closed and the soup kitchen closed we prayed for a way to keep feeding the community and this new way became clear,” Dumas says as she bags up snack cookies, her apron emblazoned with the words “You’re Cooking with Big Mama”.
“we get all sorts of variety from Second Harvest and we can feed more people, we can prepare more types of food, hot entrees and snacks. We can do better because of what Second Harvest gives us.”
“Before Covid we could only feed 100 people a week, now we can do much more. A lot of people have mobility issues or don’t feel comfortable coming to the soup kitchen and this new way gets food to them.”
Calvary Baptist Soup Kitchen receives most of their food from a scheduled pick up at the Second Harvest warehouse and based on what produce, protein, shelf stable staples and snacks they receive, a new Saturday menu is created accordingly.
While Second Harvest’s large-scale distributions and mobile markets received a lot of attention during the pandemic that call to action represents just one portion of community impact. Agencies like Calvary Baptist are supplied with regular food orders to fuel their services and provide important hunger relief in communities across the region.
“We get all sorts of variety from Second Harvest and we can feed more people, we can prepare more types of food, hot entrees and snacks.” Dumas said. “We can do better because of what Second Harvest gives us.”
As the morning progresses, Dumas moves around the kitchen, starting new volunteers on tasks, checking on the timing of the food preparation to ensure everything is packaged and ready to go by the time the drivers show up.
After retiring from her career as an elementary school teacher in Spokane for 46 years, Dumas found a place to combine her passions for cooking and helping people at her church’s free community meal program and quickly built a reputation for her delicious soups. “I love cooking, when people come to my house, they’re coming to get some food.” Dumas said.
As the dishes from the cooking are being cleaned, a stream of volunteer drivers pull up and load their vehicles with the food bags. Everyone is cheerful, happy to be helping again, happy to be serving the needy again. Dumas is busy as always but takes time to reflect on how Calvary Baptist has adapted.
“I think this was a blessing that came out of it. We sing a song in church “A Blessing in the Storm” and Covid is our storm, and the blessing is that we can see a way to feed more people now.”
From The Kitchen: Cooking with dried beans, lentils and peas – March 8
Have you ever received dried goods, such as beans, lentils or split peas, and felt stumped on how to use them? Cooking with dried goods can seem daunting, especially if you’re used to using canned varieties. However, dried beans, lentils and split peas are affordable and often found in food pantries, so cooking with them is a great skill to gain confidence in. Continue reading for some tips and tricks on how to prepare dried ingredients and gain some cooking inspiration from Second Harvest recipes that utilize them.
National Agriculture Month: Celebrating Ag Partners and Friends – March 1
We take immense pleasure throughout the year in celebrating our agriculture partners and friends. But during National Agriculture Month, we take extra measures to recognize their continued support, contributions and commitment to Second Harvest’s mission of serving people facing hunger.
Our ag partners range from small, local farms to large industry farms, livestock operations, and the processing and manufacturing plants that support them.
Why I support Second Harvest: A donor’s story – February 23
Nothing is more important than having food on the table. To state the obvious, food—like shelter—is something without which we cannot survive. Second Harvest thus quite literally provides a lifeline for those whom my wife and I cannot feed directly. And it has done so for the nearly 40 years that we have supported Second Harvest. During this period we have seen not even a hint that their mission is diminishing in importance. On the contrary, the organization seems to be throwing out more and more lifelines to those in our midst who are in danger of sinking.
Feeding Eastern Washington and North Idaho
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