First Saturday Cook Group preparing the Saturday Lunch at State Street
Numbers served at the State Street location since our move in late March: March 26 – October 31, 2017
• Breakfast 30,611
• Saturday Lunch 5,358
• TOTAL 35,969
Blessings
• Larger dining hall space; easier to move around
• Parking on site
• No stairs; wonderful for those in wheel chairs who have difficulty walking
• No stairs; wonderful for deliveries
• Stable Saturday Cooks and Coordinators; slowly getting to know where things are and how things work in a new environment
• Stable onsite Breakfast staff (Nicole and Pat) and stable management staff (Angela) with good communication skills, passion for their work, and willingness to work out issues with our host
Challenges
• Due to the larger footprint (inside and outside) we found it necessary to double our Breakfast security from one guard to two
• Again, due to the larger dining hall, we quickly found we needed more volunteers than at the St. James location; summer was extremely challenging
• We have one quarter of the storage space we had at St. James for dry and cold storage
• Because we share the kitchen and dining hall space with our landlords - St. Ben’s Community Meal - requiring the moving of small appliances and supplies in and out of dining hall and kitchen on a daily basis
• Little to no privacy is available for our collaborative services
One additional blessing was the financial success of our Capital Campaign. It has given us the ability to add the additional security guard and to purchase items that relieve the stress on storage space. Thanks to all of you who gave to the Capital Campaign, and to those of you who have volunteered at the new location. We remain grateful for your compassion, dedication and joy.
