The outreach initiative Dinner with Grace has been addressing food insecurity and fostering community for almost 20 years.
Volunteers in a hidden nook of Grace Cathedral prepare holiday dinners twice a month, which they then offer to residents of supported housing.
As she demonstrated the kitchen, lead volunteer Nicole Stahl remarked, “This is basically our workspace and it’s wonderful.” The team creates meals that they believe will make the people who consume them happy.
“Our menu tonight is this really fantastic cheesy ziti pasta bake,” Stahl said. “Everybody loves it.”
In addition, there was salad, raspberry crumble for dessert, and garlic bread.
“These individuals are leaving homelessness. They are deserving of all the help we can provide,” Stahl stated.
For nearly 15 years, Stahl has volunteered at Dinner with Grace. She can see everyone in need of a hot dinner because she lives next to the church.
“I never thought in my life that there were people who could possibly be my neighbors who would go to sleep hungry or who wouldn’t have a place to sleep,” Stahl said. “But that’s our reality.”
Approximately 2,000 lunches are prepared annually by the team of volunteers. The Mentone, a long-term supportive living facility in the city’s Tenderloin, will be the destination for this group.
Stahl and many of the same volunteers who prepared the meals will serve them at the housing site the next day. She has been volunteering for over ten years and has developed a rapport with a few of the elderly.
Even while many residents will stay at these locations for years, it can still feel lonely over the holidays. For individuals like Harold Thornton, a lunch like this might provide a bit more happiness and a sense of community.
“This is not where I’m from. “I’m an East Coast native,” Thornton stated. It has become virtually a family tradition to have someone come out here and feed us around the holidays. It’s a treat for me, and I feel better.”
It’s a delight for Stahl as well.
“I felt lighter than air as I walked up the hill after spending an evening here and serving patrons at the Mentone. “I felt younger than in the spring,” Stahl remarked.
Dinner with Grace aims to unite a varied group of individuals in order to uncover their shared humanity.
“We all deserve the basics in life, and a little jam on top of it,” Stahl remarked.
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