In the coming weeks, restaurant patrons will notice new posters and smaller-sized placards in windows marking establishments as a partner of Hood River Shelter Services.
The posters read, in part, that the establishment “proudly supports the mission of Hood River Shelter Services by providing regular meals for shelter guests.”
But while the posters are new, the collaboration between the warming shelter and these businesses is not.
But before we get to that, a short history lesson is in order: In the early years, the shelter moved from site to site, with volunteers setting up and taking down after a week’s stay. (In the very beginning, the shelter was only open when the temperature dropped below the freezing mark.) Food served for dinner was a simple affair of the microwavable cup of noodles variety.
“Filling volunteer slots is a challenge for us, so to provide a wholesome dinner … was more than we could do,” said Sarah Kellems, director of Hood River Shelter Services.
And food took a significant chunk out of the shelter’s budget, as both dinner and breakfast is served to guests.
Enter Mark DeResta, chef at Riverside Grill, located at the Best Western Plus Hood Rive Inn. This is his third season providing meals for the shelter; for the past two, he’s helped coordinate the effort between the shelter and area restaurants.
DeResta’s involvement began during the 2016-2017 season, when he called warming shelter volunteers Jan Miller and Sandy Spellecy with an offer of food leftover from the Inn’s many December holiday parties.
“End of story, they’re amazing,” DeResta said. “They were so appreciative we called.”
The feedback those meals received from both guests and volunteers “made me feel good, how appreciative they were … We gave them lots of nice leftovers.”
He began to “squirrel away” leftovers to take to the shelter for delivery two or three times a week.
“In the beginning, I know what I did, I sent it hot because otherwise, they’d have to take turns at the microwave,” he said.
At that time, Shelter Services was seeking a full-time shelter location, and DeResta was giving suggestions on buildings that might work.
“Most of the volunteers are a little older, and they were packing up Saturday afternoon and unpacking Sunday Morning, and it was hard on them,” he said.
At the closing meeting that year, he sat with Miller and Spellecy and “what frustrated them was that they had no shelter. They would go from church to church.”
With food being his specialty, he asked what their overall meal budget was. They gave him a number, and he said, “You guys find a shelter and I’ll eliminate your food budget.”
He started knocking on the doors of friends, chefs and restaurant owners, and got a dozen restaurants to join him in providing meals for the warming shelter on a rotating basis for the 2017-2018 season.
It should be noted that this year, 16 restaurants have signed up.
“Mark provides the schedule and works with each business,” said Kellems.
“The meals are full nutrition and acknowledge the dignity and humanity (of shelter patrons) in a really lovely way — they give that to the most needy, and Mark has worked to bring them all together.”
The restaurants provide 12 to 25 meals a night, depending on the number of people at the shelter.
Waitstaff also feel a part of the collaboration, Kellems noted, often commenting to her that they’re happy to be a part of the program.
“It’s a way of bringing more community members in,” she said.
The overnight shift is the hardest slot to fill, noted DeResta, and he hopes that the catered restaurant meals serve as an incentive for those thinking of volunteering.
Volunteers wait until shelter guests have eaten before eating themselves, “but they look forward to it, too,” said Kellems.
“I would love to see this as an inspiration to other communities,” she said. “It is a model — minimizing food waste while having a positive impact on people who are hungry.”
“It speaks to Hood River — the sense of community here,” said DeResta. “I think it’s amazing. There is a lot of kindness here. I’m not sure if it would fly in every town.”
Kellems and DeResta are hanging the shelter-restaurant collaboration posters as another way to spread the word about the shelter and those who help.
“Not everyone is aware restaurants are working together in this way,” Kellems said.
“Meals are such a gift to the guests and our organization.”
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