[soliloquy id=”17417″]
We just hit the mark!
Who knew that Peace House’s Uncle Food’s Diner would ever become a four day a week, free meal delivery program, when the COVID-19 shutdown changed the face of our community dinner? Last year, when pandemic closures began, we transitioned our volunteer-run, weekly sit-down meal into a full time operation that packaged balanced meals and offered them to people in need on the streets of Ashland. Now we are serving more than two thousand meals a month, and have surpassed a major benchmark of 40,000 meals offered in our town.
Since January of 2020, Peace House’s Uncle Food’s Diner has been turning out meals and delivering them at five drop points in Ashland, four days a week. We feed those in need, many of whom do not have homes or a place to cook, and are hungry. We also feed those displaced by fires, COVID unemployment, and eviction. We serve fixed-income seniors, veterans and disabled people trying to make ends meet, and those without legal status who cannot get government assistance.
Our Diner has weathered the concerns about COVID prevention, sanitation masks, hot and cold weather and the Almeda Fire, all of which added significant challenges to people’s ability to sustain themselves economically. Many families and individuals from the fires are still camping out or living in vehicles. While some have housing, others still lack food security.
Peace House has coordinated with Oregon Representative Pam Marsh and two other meal programs in Ashland, in an effort to assure one meal per day is available to anyone in need. Together with the Monday Meal and Jobs with Justice’s Peace Meal, a meal is available seven days a week, 365 days per year.
Maren Faye, Uncle Food’s Diner’s chef for almost ten years, coordinates the project, together with her core team of cooks, a dedicated team of volunteers, and donations from local grocery stores and Ashland’s food bank. Since 1992, Uncle Food’s has been a signature piece for Peace House, beginning with a few hungry high school students who had no place to live.
Over the years, Uncle Food’s became one of the ways to reach to those in need of all ages and provide a feeling of community for people often alienated and isolated in our society. Kudos to our hard-working cooks, volunteers and staff for keeping the food coming in delicious, individually packaged meals boxes, complete with sandwiches, donated yogurts, eggs and desserts.
For July, we have moved our operation to the Presbyterian Church, so that Ashland’s United Methodist Church can remodel their kitchen. We plan to move back after the kitchen rebuild. The Presbyterians have been very gracious and welcoming, we want to thank them for all they are doing to make our month in their kitchen a success.
We want to also thank the Rogue Valley community that has sustained this effort with both vision and commitment. This could only have happened with the willingness of First Methodist Church of Ashland to offer their kitchen and storage areas for the last year. There are SO MANY to thank!!
Among the many others to include are The Ashland Food Bank, Access, Barry and Kathryn Thalden and the Oregon Community Foundation, and many many silent partners.
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As long as possible, we plan to keep our deliveries at the current level into the future.
