On Monday, August 13, 2012 over 40 individuals from food banks, meal programs, the city and state, and food distributors attended the annual SFC Van Tour. This year’s tour gave attendees the chance to learn about a few of Seattle’s meal programs and the work they’re doing in the community.
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| On the Van! |
1st Stop: Queen Anne Food Bank
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| Elise tells us about the QAFB |
The Queen Anne Food Bank operates a sack lunch program five days a week and a food bank one day a week. The food bank closed temporarily in November 2011 when St. Vincent de Paul could no longer fund it. However, in February 2012 it reopened with support from the community. Now with donated food, one paid staff member, and 50 volunteers, the Queen Anne Food Bank serves 2,400 sack lunches and 250 grocery bags a month.
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| David fills us in on Recovery Cafe |
2nd Stop: Recovery Café
Recovery Café is a recovery support center that provides several services to its members; among those services are lunch and dinner provided daily Tuesday through Saturday. Meals are prepared from scratch by members who volunteer to cook. The Café also has an espresso machine that was donated by Starbucks. Café Vita donates coffee and maintains the machine. Members can be trained as baristas, and there is a latte hour most weekdays.
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| Delicious Katsu burger! |
3rd Stop: ACRS (Asian Counseling and Referral Service) – Club Bamboo
Club Bamboo at ACRS provides lunch and socialization activities for seniors Tuesday through Friday. After an energizing line dancing class, people can come together and enjoy the delicious lunches served by Club Bamboo; van tour participants were lucky enough to enjoy one of these lunches. Our lunch menu was: Katsu burger, potato salad, grapes, pears, and sweet potato fries!
In addition to the meal served at Club Bamboo, ACRS also works closely with organizations in the community to provide ethnic hot meals to seniors.
4th Stop: El Centro de la Raza
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| El Centro's de la Raza's Meal Program |
El Centro de la Raza operates a Latino hot meal program and a food bank. Their hot meal program has specific meals for youth and seniors and a lunch hot meal open to anyone Monday through Friday. Their food bank is open Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. They provide approximately 2,000 bags of food a month, and 90% of that food is donated. They serve a large Asian population, and estimate that there are about five different dialects spoken among their clients.
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| Don tells us about Community Lunch |
5th Stop: Community Lunch on Capitol Hill at All Pilgrims Church
The Community Lunch on Capitol Hill was our last stop on the van tour. They serve 40,000 hot meals every year using over 120 tons of food! Hot meals are served Tuesday and Friday at noon and Thursday at 5:00 pm. Community Lunch receives from Food Lifeline, Northwest Harvest, and grocery rescue programs.
Don was especially generous and served us ice cream to celebrate Alison's time as the Food Resources Program Assistant; she will be missed!
More Photos from the Tour:
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| The group eats lunch at ACRS' Club Bamboo. |
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| Information on Club Bamboo |
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| Denise tells the group about El Centro's history. |
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| David shows off Community Lunch's kitchen. |
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| The group in El Centro de la Raza's Food Bank. |
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| Lester picks up his delicious lunch. |
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| Gary Tang tells the group about ACRS. |
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| Recovery Cafe's espresso machine, donated by Starbucks. |
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