The Dalles Community Meals Needs Volunteers, Challenge yourself to provide food, fellowship for those without food or shelter
Zion Lutheran Church preparing meals for those experiencing food and housing insecurity at The Dalles Community Meals.
By Cole Goodwin
After several days in the cold without shelter, a hot meal might be the only thing that keeps you going.
“It’s freezing out here,” said James Pinheiro, 58, on Monday, Jan. 24 The houseless man said, “It’s freezing all day and all night. It’s important to have a hot meal and hot coffee instead of cold food all the time.”
Pictured: A warm meal prepared by TDCM volunteers.
Luckily for Pinheiro and others experiencing food insecurity and houselessness, The Dalles Community Meal (TDCM) provides meals at 4:30 p.m. every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Pinheiro said they had helped him out on many a day when he was struggling.
TDCM volunteers said that while some might not completely understand Pinheiro’s experience, volunteering with Community Meals might give you a glimpse into local people’s hardships and give you that warm feeling that comes from offering a helping hand.
So, here’s your chance to help.
The Dalles Community Meals needs volunteers to serve as Meal Hosts following the retirement of several long-term volunteer groups which has left the current meal host schedule concerningly empty.
Pictured: The Dalles Community Meal Logo. Click here to sign up to voiunteer as a meal host.
About The Dalles Community Meals
TDCM has been serving those experiencing food insecurity in our community since 1983.
“Food is one of the basics of Life,” said Chris Zukin, Vice-President of TDCM. “There are people without secure or constant access to food in The Dalles, and this service helps feed those folks three days out of the week.”
Many of those experiencing food insecurity depend on Community Meals volunteers to deliver 240 meals every week.
However, between an aging volunteer base, and COVID-19, the organization needs newcomers.
“We need five meal hosts who would be able to volunteer and provide one meal per month, or ten hosts who would provide one every other month or sixty hosts who would provide one meal a year,” said Zukin.
The Meal Host is responsible for sourcing food, preparing the meal, serving it to the guests, and cleaning up after the meal.
“Community Meal volunteers will be happy to help anyone interested in becoming a Meal Host. We will provide a tour of the Meal Site and Pantry and will explain in detail how to go about preparing and serving a Community Meal,” said Zukin
Many Meal Hosts buy the food themselves and either prepare the food at home or at the meal site. Meal Hosts can also opt to use TDCM’s commercial kitchen and food pantry at 315 W 3rd Street to prepare the meal. Some Meal Hosts do a little of both, using the various canned goods, frozen veggies, and dried goods available in the TDCM pantry along with other food they have bought or obtained from a local food bank.
Pictured: Tyler Beane Kelly.
An Inside Look at Volunteering with Community Meals
Tyler Beane Kelly, 37, Pastor at Zion Lutheran Church, has been volunteering with TDCM since 2012 and took us through what an average day of volunteering at Community Meals looks like.
"We have hungry people in our community, and this is a great way to help provide food to those that need it,” said Tyler Beane Kelly.
“Everyone does it a little differently,” said Beane Kelly. “But the way we generally do it is that we go back in the pantry to see what is available to make our meal. And from there we get an idea for the meal, and then whatever else that we need to complete the meal we'll go and purchase that.”
“And then, on the day of the meal, we get our crew together. And we go to the Community Meals site and make the meal together,” said Beane Kelly. “It takes a couple of hours to do all the prep and cooking and getting meals ready to go out to serve. We serve about 80 people, so we have to make about 80 meals.”
Pictured: Tyler Beane Kelly doing the prep work for cooking.
Tyler said that COVID had significantly impacted the way the meals are served and that he was looking forward to a return to a sit-down meal with volunteers and guests.
“Pre-COVID, we would invite everybody in and serve them, and volunteers and guests would all eat the meal all together at the community meal site in the St. Vincent de Paul building.”
“I preferred that because I like to be able to sit down with people and talk to them while we eat and share stories and figure out how people are doing. And you know, be a part of a personally interconnected community that looks out for each other.”
“But in COVID times, we can't do that. So, we serve the food in to-go boxes, and people come and pick it up. Some people also come in to use the bathroom, showers, pour a cup of coffee, or water. But because of COVID restrictions, there is not the same level of commingling happening, and folks have to eat outside right now.”
“About 30 of the meals we make we also box up to the Mid-Columbia Community Action Council Non-Congregate ‘Pallet’ Shelter in The Dalles, and Tom Sommerville delivers those to the folks staying over there.”
Meal Host’s Share What They Love About Volunteering with Community Meals
Tyler and his volunteer group also shared a little about what inspires them to volunteer at Community Meals.
“For me, it's the people,” said Tyler, “I like the people that go to the community meal. I like the people that are willing to volunteer. It’s great to build those relationships and to be a part of that community. And I like that it feels like a good use of my time. It gives you a good feeling to volunteer and make good delicious food for people experiencing food insecurity in our community. I like the whole thing, the whole process and all the relationships that come with it.”
Pictured: Jay, TDCM volunteer.
“You don’t always realize how rewarding it is to volunteer,” said Jay, a volunteer at TDCM, “Once you do it a few times, though, you start to get it. It’s been a good experience for me.”
“It sure feels good when you’re done,” piped in another volunteer.
Marie Connell has been volunteering as a Meal Host since 2018, said that what inspired her to volunteer at TDCM was twofold.
“It allows me to help other people and give back a little bit. Plus, Christian teaching is that you should help those that need help, and so that’s what I do.”
Pictured: Billy and TDCM volunteer Marie Connell.
Learning to Challenge Preconceptions
Several volunteers, including Tyler Beane Kelly said that volunteering with Community Meals was also a great way to counteract personal preconceptions about those experiencing food insecurity and houselessness.
“I grew up sheltered. I grew up in a suburb of St. Paul in Minnesota,” said Beane Kelly. “We didn’t have a lot of people that were experiencing houselessness living near us. My Church would serve a Community Meal for folks that were houseless. And I had some preconceived notions about those folks prior to serving them.
And I have to continue to unlearn those preconceived notions every day, and every time I serve a Community Meal. It’s a beautiful thing to sit down with someone, share stories, and to share in the gratitude of sharing a meal together, and it heals a lot of those preconceptions that we’ve inherited.”
“We all have preconceived notions that hang around, and as a whole, a lot of us seem to find it very easy to talk about those experiencing houselessness as an ‘issue’ rather than as individual people. It is disturbingly easy to dehumanize folks experiencing houseless situations with comments about ‘oh they’re all lazy’ or ‘oh they’re all on drugs’ and ‘they’re all broken somehow’.
Well ‘they’ are not all the same people. ‘They’ are all individuals, and if you actually sit down with someone, time and time again, you’ll discover that every person has a unique story and a unique set of circumstances that have led them to experience food insecurity or houselessness.”
Tyler Beane Kelly also stressed the importance of volunteers to the program's success.
“We can’t provide this service without willing volunteers. We’re at one of those points again, where we’ve lost some of our long-term volunteers, and we need some more committed people to keep it going every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, fifty-two weeks out of the year.”
How to Become a Meal Host
Get a Group Together. A good sized group should have between two to six volunteers.
Get a Food Handlers Permit. One member of each Meal Host group must have an Oregon Food Handlers Permit. The card can be obtained online at orfoodhandlers.com for the cost of $10.00.
Get Signed Up. Check out the Meal Host Schedule on the TDCM website and email zukin@charter.net to sign up for vacant meal times.
Learn More. If you are interested in learning more about The Dalles Community Meals or you want to sign up to be a Meal Host, please visit the TDCM website, email Chris Zukin at zukin@charter.net or call Tom Somerville at 541-296-7778.
“This meal is for everybody that is experiencing food insecurity, not just those that are experiencing houselessness. Come one. Come all.” said Community Meals.
