Cooking for the Shelter

This week Nana agreed to help me take dinner to the shelter in Redmond. They have recently increased their bed count, so now we take dinner for 20-25 hungry young people, which is bordering on too much. Well, perhaps not too many people, but it requires a lot of planning, and careful choices about menu. And you know who I want on my team when there is a cooking project that requires planning and choices? Nana. This week I decided to go with pulled pork, which is crockpotted in 2 crockpots, baked potatoes and salad. My fatal error was to also deciding to cook an apple crisp.

I picked up Nana at 5, and we got back to my house to start with dinner around 5:30. We figured we'd assemble the crisp, cook it, and then do the potatoes (which I foil wrapped beforehand), so that the potatoes would still be warm at dinner. It's ok to laugh a little at this point- we need to deliver dinner at 8:30, and that stuff is simply not all going to happen in that three hour window. Nana and Matt started slicing apples while I made the top and preheated the oven. The crisp went in the oven around 6:30, and I was already starting to think better of my plan. Instead of turning the oven up (since a crisp can pretty much cook between 350 and 425), I just threw the potatoes in there as well. This will get us to the punchline in about an hour.

Next, we shredded 16 pounds of meat. I was feeling good about this- it was tasty, and for once seemed like plenty of food. At about 7, I nuked up some lasagna and the three of us had a simple dinner. Matt kept bragging to Nana that this was special, I usually forget to feed us on the nights I take dinner to the shelter.

At 7:30, I got up from the table, ready to start thinking about how we would move all this stuff, and wondering why we weren't overwhelmed with the luscious smells out of the oven. Picture this, I have a 15x11x4 foil pan brimming with apple crisp on the bottom rack, surrounded by foil wrapped potatoes on all sides, and above that is a tray of more foil wrapped potatoes, which is also surrounded by potatoes. (Dinner for 25, right?) The edges of the crisp seemed bubbly but the middle was... still crisp. Gulp. I figured, if the potatoes were done, I would just pull them out of the way and the heat would get more even in the oven. Worse news, the potatoes are also crisp. My eyes are getting bulgy now.

There is a moment, usually about 7:30, when we are planning to take dinner to the shelter and I think, "Nevermind. This won't work. Is it too late to cancel?" This was that moment.

Nana breezes in to the kitchen and says, "Hm, why don't you turn up the oven? And can you nuke those potatoes?" and then she goes on to cleaning up from all the dinner and cooking. Yes and Yes!  By this point Matt has looked up a real recipe for making baked potatoes (1hr at 425), and we crank up the heat. He starts pulling potatoes out of their foil jackets in pairs and throwing them in the microwave for a couple minutes at a time, then rewrapping them. Matt is watching the clock like a hawk, but I'm confident that dinner can be served eventually. I start loading up the car. Juice. Buns. BBQ sauce. Butter and sour cream. Lasagna pan full of pork. Salad. The longer the potatoes have been in the oven, the less nuking they need. The crisp is starting to soften and smell lovely. We get the last soft potato in the car and hurtle down to Redmond to serve.

I'm feeling grateful that I can afford to donate dinner, and that I have family to support me in the effort, but still a little bashful that we might be a couple minutes late and a fair bit frazzled. When we arrive, the shelter is dark. For one second, I wonder if I misread the calendar, but no, homeless shelters don't take days off. Turns out, we aren't the only ones feeling flustered tonight, the key has gone missing, and the staff are waiting for someone to let them in.

As we wait patiently, more people start hanging out in this dark parking lot, and I'm feeling really glad that we have a trunk full of tasty food to share. Once the door is open, we breeze in like this is no big deal, unpacking and delivering while the now flustered staff and trying to recover from their shortened prep time as well. By the time we left, it seemed like a huge crowd was waiting outside. Several of the guests thanked us for bringing dinner, and we slinked back to out nice warm homes. The next day I got an email that they had more people than beds that night, but they were able to offer dinner, even seconds, to everyone who was there that night.

In the Spirit of the Season

How ironic that my most recent post was about having more time than money. Long story short, I quickly got a new job, and in addition to learning the ropes at the new gig, my volunteer work with HiveBio has been taking up a lot of my mental energy. And then it was the holidays.

This year, my family decided to draw names for gift giving, which reduced the number of adults we needed to get gifts for tremendously. This, all by itself, is awesome, since I didn't have shopping anxiety to contend with. But even better, most of my family members requested donations for Christmas. How cool is that?  So, I donated to the Red Cross for my grandmother, and Northwest Harvest for my mother-in-law. I drew my brother's name, and donated to Child's Play (an organization that provides toys and video games to kids in hospitals). He donated to Northwest Harvest AND Friends of Youth. My sister-in-law also donated to Northwest Harvest on behalf of my mom. By my estimate, about $400 were gifted to charity for the holidays.

And while I haven't been blogging, the thermometer keeps inching it's way up. We surpassed the 60% mark, and are approaching $20,000!

Reflection on Taking Dinner to the Shelter

I was planning to do another brief, "we took dinner to the shelter," note tonight. But.. well, my folks stopped in to drop off dessert (my dad really wanted to send brownies sundaes), and then they hung around to chat a bit. The told me the onions and mushrooms I was cooking for a spaghetti sauce smelled nice, and talked me into making ~1 cup servings of pasta. The point being, my family is awesome, which is obviously a major reason that I have never spent the night in an emergency shelter. But that is just luck of the draw; I got lucky to score an awesome family.

And what with the changing of the seasons, it's getting dark. The shelter in Redmond is basically at one end of a strip mall that is neighbored by other strip malls. When it was light out, the people who were coming to stay at the shelter would hang around in their shorts and T-shirts, and the basically just look like people who haven't decided where they are headed next. I've commented before, they don't look like the long-term homeless. But now that it is dark out, and getting cooler, and suddenly it seems like they are lurking rather than just hanging around. You know how in winter, whenever anyone wears a big winter coat, we basically all look like hoodlums? The same is true of people lurking in the shadows of a closed strip mall, they all look like hoodlums. Not like people who are trying to be unobtrusive while they worry and wait for a meal and a bed. I think it must get a lot harder to be a homeless youth (especially) as the days get shorter, and you spend more of your time conspicuously being in public places, it's harder to pretend you don't have anywhere to be right now. It become a lot more obvious that you don't belong anywhere.

Now that I've been taking dinner to the shelter for many months, I find myself feeling much more empathetic to the homeless people I see every day. On my walk to work, I regularly see at least half a dozen people sleeping on the street (on Denny for crying out loud- that doesn't include anyone who wanted to sleep somewhere quiet). I see people who sleep sitting up, their arms looped around their backpacks, which I assume happens when you are too worried about your own safety to commit to laying down or letting go of the backpack that has your only possessions. Being homeless would be terribly stressful. I see one guy who keeps a hair brush next to his sleeping bag, and I think I know why. He doesn't want to look like a bum. Or get treated like a bum.

Every time I take dinner to the shelter, I reflect that I am SO LUCKY to get to take dinner to the shelter, instead of eating my dinner there. Especially for the homeless youth, being homeless is often a matter of bad luck, and a lack of great support systems. While many of them have been pushed out of the foster care system with few enduring contacts, I have a fantastic family who has supported all my crazy endeavors, helping me get my education which makes it much easier for me to find work. They even bring me brownie sundaes to share with some people they will never meet because I told my parents I needed help. Friends of Youth does a great job at working to supplement the support systems for their guests, to provide them counseling, social work services and connect the with opportunities for education and work. But really, nothing can replace the good fortune of having a lifetime with a great family.

Dinner to the Shelter

Just another note that my Mom and I made dinner for the Landing, the Friends of Youth Emergency Shelter. The calendar of people taking dinner has a lot more gaps this month; I dropped off a gift card for groceries, so they can pick up dinner for another night.

Dinner to the Shelter

I took dinner to the Landing again last night. A few thoughts:

• crock pots are awesome for large meals.
• it may not be possible to cook more than 1 lb of rice at once without burning some of it
• using the "hostess food guide estimations" for how much people eat at a party does not translate well to estimating the food needed for the food insecure. 6 oz of meat and 2 ounces of starch is a good rule of thumb for a cocktail party, but not really for people who might only eat one real meal a day.

Last night, it took me long enough to lay out dinner (Belezean Stew Chicken, Rice and Beans, salad and cookies) that there were some people lining up to come in when I left. They said thanks for bringing dinner.

I remain surprised that the people who come to stay at the shelter don't look homeless to me. They don't look rich. They don't look like they have anywhere else to be. But they are wearing clean clothes, have brushed their hair, and look a little down. They hang together in small groups. They are young. They are polite, and quiet. I'm relieved that they don't look like the long-term homeless I walk by every day in Seattle. But this is part of their problem- they don't really look, outright, like people who need help.

It aches my heart to think about how different my own life would have needed to be, and how different my life is, than these kids. It's complicated for me, but I take it to heart that the staff says a warm meal makes a big difference for them. I want something better for the homeless youth, and if a warm meal helps, I can provide that.

What a Great Birthday!

I have the best friends and family ever. Seriously. I'm still so excited about all the good stuff yinz did for my big day.

First things first: we shattered the 30% mark! 31.5% is the official high water mark as of my birthday!

Is it crass to talk numbers? I don't really care. For my actual birthday, my awesome friends and family helped me to push up the thermometer nearly $900- nearly 3% of the way there! In one day!

So let's break it down. I had TWO friends go in for their very first blood donations, thanks Karen and Ruth! Both of them said it was not terrible, that people were very friendly and they got to eat cookies. You should try this.

My parents gave another donation to one of my favorite teachers on Donor's Choose who is moving to a new classroom and needs (choke) pencils for her third grade students who can't afford their own pencils and crayons. Ms. Kacsur's classroom has been supported by my folks in the past, someday soon I hope to scan in some of the thank you cards I got from her students. *misty eyes*

AND my parents gave me some hats to take to Friends of Youth (you may be wondering if generosity is hereditary: I believe it is a learned behavior). Combined with the lamps and tent from Karen, I'm ready to take quite a haul to the Friend's of Youth office up the hill from me, to distribute these items to foster, at risk and homeless youth.

My parents ALSO gave some money to Northwest Harvest, the regional food bank. It both infuriates and inspires me that there can be people in America who would go hungry, if it weren't for the work of food banks like Northwest Harvest. I'm glad to finally get them up on the board.


I'm so glad to support Northwest Harvest, in fact, that I asked my friends to participate in a game of "skill" at my birthday party. We opened a pool for ladder golf, and planned to split the pool between the winner and Northwest harvest.  This resulted in both some friendly rivalry AND $80 for Northwest Harvest. Aren't my friends awesome??

I had a great time, and I really can't think of a better way to spend the day. Thanks to my friends to hung out with me, supported the causes I care about, and generally made me feel awesome about turning 30.

Before the SummeRun 5K. It might take me longer than 10 minutes.

Dinner Donor

Just dropping a line here to say that I did take dinner to the Landing last night. Things worked out that I didn't have much help (except for a clutch moment where Matt helped me slice peaches so I could get a crisp into the oven before the lasagna). Since it was pouring buckets, they were expecting a pretty full house, and warm lasagna seemed like the right thing to bring. While it's neat to feel like I can cook for 15 people by myself, it was way more fun when I had help.

There were lots of staff hanging around at my delivery (there was a basketball game on?), and I am super curious about who these people are. They always act like I'm bringing them something really special- like it's the best stuff they've seen all week. By the time dinner is loaded into my car, I'm always very self conscious: Four lasagnas and 24 rolls. What do normal people eat for dinner? I'm sure they've been told that little bit of enthusiasm makes volunteers like me really happy to come by. What can I say, it works.

Share the Love!

I took dinner to the Friends of Youth shelter at the Landing earlier this week. The best part was being able to share that doing-good feeling with my mom and grandma, who happily joined in to help out.  (Also, cooking with my mom seems to reduce that feeling of existential kitchen crisis, where I wonder, "Why am I here? Do I even know what cooking is??")

I knew it would be more fun, and less chore like to have my Mom helping in the kitchen. But I was surprised by how good I felt about sharing the experience.  I always feel really good about taking dinner over there- it's something really tangible that I am doing for my community. It's really nice to share that feeling with someone I like, and to feel like we are the sort of people who do good things in the community.

I was planning to write a post about how I want to look for more ways to share that good feeling, but my folks beat me to the punch on Mother's Day.  While we were sitting down to a Mother's Day brunch, my Dad turned to his mom (my saintly grandmother), and said, "Your mother's day gift is a donation to Donors Choose."  I couldn't have been happier if the gift had been for me.  Or if I actually got to read the books that my grandmother picked to buy for a local classroom.

I think I'm starting to understand what they say about good deeds multiplying.

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Have you noticed our totals?  Just inching past the $4000 mark (!)

Now would be an awesome time to sign up for the Crawl for a Cause- raise money for charity, and hang out with me for my birthday.  It's going to be grand!

I'm donating blood this week. I'll try to write an update about the importance of blood donation, but schedule yours today!

Letter from Friends of Youth

Sometimes I worry that I am not doing a very good job of explaining why I am doing this, or why it matters.

Perhaps this letter from Friends of Youth can help to explain it. 

"Your generous dinner contribution... provided a hot and healthy meal to young people in a time of crisis. Your gift helps our guests take their first steps on their journey from homelessness to stability and safety." 

Yup, my pulled pork provided a transition to stability and safety.

Dinner to the Landing

Matt and I took dinner to The Landing for the Friends of Youth Shelter again tonight. Dinner for 15 homeless young adults (18-24).  Our first time was pretty eye opening, actually.  I'm not sure what I thought to expect, but I wasn't exactly prepared.

The Landing is, during the day, a youth center or something.  It's clearly a space that is used for other things; it's an office in a strip mall.  And at night time, when we showed up at 8:30 to deliver dinner, they start dragging mattresses out to cover the floor. We arrived a few mintures early to get assembled- I'm not sure if I was afraid that the yuppie guests would diss my cooking, or that starving hoards would try to steal my donation, but mostly I wanted to get it right. When we arrived (at the office space in the strip mall not far from the movie theatre we sometimes go to), there was no one there.  I wondered if I had brought too many lasagnas.  We dodged the mattresses being dragged out by the (college aged) volunteers, and assembed dinner in the kitchen.

While we were arranging salads and things, people started to knock at the door.  On the door, there is a schedule: 8:30 Line-up and Registry. 8:45 Lottery and Dinner....  What I like about this shelter/organization is that they make an effort to connect people to other services that they might need.  What wigs me out about this shelter is that they might not have space for everyone who needs it. And that the Vista Volunteer who is barely 24 might have to tell someone his own age that there is no bed and he has to sleep in the street. That thought made the experience all too real.

I had briefly pondered staying for dinner- acknowledging the humanity of my neighbors who just don't have a home tonight, breaking bread and sharing encouragement.  But I couldn't do it.  I was struck by the need, the complete need, that would drive a person to an emergency shelter- you have no home, no family and friends to land on, no money to make your own way, and possibly no clear path to change that.  In the few hours (~12) that people stay at the shelter they are warm, fed, and connected with people who might be able to help them solve the very real problems they are facing.  Making small talk with someone who is self-conscious about her cooking is probably not the best use of anyone's time.

BUT, having a warm meal provided frees up the staff/volunteers to focus on helping the people who show up. And providing a meal as just some private citizen is a gesture to say that I still think of these people as my neighbors (even if my notoriously awkward ability to converse with strangers prevents me from being social in these circumstances).  Bringing dinner feels like the best way for me to help- not that it is all the help that these people need, but it is probably the best thing that I can do.

Feeding the Hungry

Tomorrow, I am making dinner for 15 homeless youth. I'm so nervous/excited.

Several of the projects I've been able to support so far have been really fun.  So much fun, that arguable, it's not much of a sacrifice to help them out.  Yeah, spend a day talking with students about thier awesome science?  Eat girl scout cookies?  Yeah, I'm a real hero.  But I was looking for a way to get involved with some issues that are frankly harder to deal with.  Feeding the hungry.  Giving shelter to the poor.  I learned really quickly that because there is no easy fix for homelessness, organizations that deal with these issues need a real commitment.  You can't just pop into the soup kitchen and see if they need help ladling. 

I also started learning a lot more about the actual problem of youth homelessness in my own community.  I'm going to need a few blog posts to cover this, but the quick summary is that even though I live in a privaledged suburb, people, included young adults and children, regularly deal with homelessness (and hunger) here.  Ugh. 

I will confess to being an absolute bleeding heart liberal.  We live in the most privileged country on earth.  People shouldn't go hungry.  And people (especially kids) should have a safe place to sleep.  Even a home. 

Up the street from me is a building that is being converted to a Friends of Youth Shelter. Friends of Youth provides therapeutic foster care and emergency shelters and services for youth and young adults.  The new building is going to be shelter for transitional housing for kids graduating out of the foster system.  I started learning about the really great things that Friends of Youth does for youth and families on the Eastside, and I thought they really are the kind of organization I want to help.  They provide a lot of support and connect clients to a variety of services to help with the transition out of homelessness. 

One of the ways that they need help is providing meals at a young adult shelter.  The Landing provides emergency housing (and dinner, and breakfast, and showers and laundry) for 15 adults from 18-24.  They can also connect them with other services, like counseling, medical help or even education.  This is really important stuff!

So important, that even though I am terribly hesitant to cook for people I don't know especially well (or at all), I decided to start volunteering to bring dinner to The Landing.  After we get this first run off the ground, I'll see how often is realistic to volunteer.  I've been SO nervous about this, but I expect that as it becomes routine, I'll feel less nervous.