We just hit the mark!
Who knew that Uncle Food’s Diner would shift to a four-day-a-week free meal delivery program when the COVID-19 shutdown changed the face of our community dinner?
When the shutdowns began in 2020, we transitioned our volunteer-run, weekly free 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 an average of 2,000 meals a month, and have surpassed a major benchmark of 40,000 meals offered in Ashland in this time period.
Meals are delivered to five drop points. We feed those in need, many of whom do not have homes or a place to cook, and are hungry. They may be displaced by fires, COVID unemployment, and eviction.
“We take special care to produce nutritious meals for people of all walks of life who need a hot meal,” said Maren Faye, Director of Uncle Food’s Diner.“We serve veterans, the elderly, low income and disadvantaged members of our community– and many others who lack access to cooking facilities.”
Our Diner has weathered 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 team of skilled cooks, a dedicated group of volunteers, and donations from local grocery stores and Ashland’s food bank. Since 1992, Uncle Food’s has been a signature program 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 due to a lack of resources. Kudos to our hard-working cooks, volunteers and staff for keeping the food coming in delicious, individually packaged meals boxes, complete with sandwiches, yogurts, eggs and desserts. Nearly all of the food is donated food that may have otherwise been thrown away.
For July, we moved our operation to a kitchen at Ashland’s Presbyterian Church, so the United Methodist Church could remodel their kitchen. We plan to move back after the kitchen rebuilt. The Presbyterians have been very gracious and welcoming, and we want to thank them for all they are doing to make this 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; Market of Choice; Shop ‘n Kart; Pamela Joy and the Food Angels; the Wardlaw Foundation; Gardener Grout; the Baraka Fund of the Tides Foundation; Barry and Kathryn Thalden; 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.
