There’s a big announcement coming at the Faith Cafe. Barb Upson, financial secretary and co-founder of the non-profit that weekly feeds Beaverton’s most vulnerable, says the cafe will be returning to in-person dining soon but she can’t say when. Yet.
The Faith Cafe serves free hot meals Sunday afternoons at 4 PM at the Bethel Church of Christ at 5150 SW Watson Ave. The meals are prepared and distributed by volunteers thanks to contributions and support from the Oregon Food Bank, Whole Foods, Safeway, and others. As well as dinners, the cafe’s guests are also encouraged to take home packages of food from a free table and warm clothing and blankets.
Since the pandemic, the dining room where the cafe used to serve meals family-style has been closed and guests have to take their meals away with them. Upson says the thing she misses most is being able to bring everyone together. As she reflects on her long experience with the cafe going back to its founding in 2005, she says that community itself is the gift she didn’t expect when she began.
“She describes the early days as a bunch of idealists. “We thought we were going to get rid of hunger,” she said wryly, “but it didn’t work out that way. We’ll always have hungry people, but what we learned is that we really are all the same. You can find something in common with anyone if you will just listen to them with an open heart.”
Guests too find comfort in the companionship of the cafe where they can spend an hour or so in a warm, welcoming, and safe environment where they can socialize. “We get them in for the meal,” Upson quips, “but they come back for the company.”
The guests who frequent the Faith Cafe currently are most often seniors but that demographic changes all the time Upson said. “About 15 to 20% of our guests are living in cars or on the streets, truly homeless, she said “There are even more very poor elderly. There are quite a few who are in housing but they don’t have enough money to keep the heat on so we’re constantly giving them blankets and warm clothing and stuff.”
Before the pandemic the cafe welcomed 80 to 100 guests on Sunday evenings but, with the pandemic and all that has meant to public gatherings, particularly with food service, the cafe has seen those numbers drop to 40 or 50 each week. Upson said they hope to bring the numbers back up with in-person dining as that becomes safe to do again.
When the opening is announced plans are in place to have no more than 10 tables with a limit of 3 at each table which means that some people will have to wait for a space but Upson says they are inside and getting warm, having coffee or cocoa if they like, getting things they might need from the free table and seeing friends.
Though hotly anticipated by guests and volunteers, the date the cafe can reopen its doors and welcome people back inside is a closely guarded secret. Upson said she can’t let the cat out of the bag yet but It will be on the website, faithcafe.org. “Guests and volunteers will know first and then we’ll post it,” she said, “ And of course, guests will still have the option to carry out if they feel more comfortable that way.”
Many volunteers are excited to be able to return to shifts at the cafe but that isn’t possible, at least for the first month. She said the whole system will be run initially by the board members themselves in order to ensure everyone stays safe. “We will run all of the stations ourselves and make the changes that we see are necessary during the first four weeks and then we’ll slowly bring in more volunteers,” she said.
It really can’t come soon enough for Upson who said, “We’re a family. You know. One guy is getting an apartment, another guy is starting a job at FedEx next week and someone else is working at some company. And you just revel with them in their successes and cry with them w\hen they say I’ve been kicked out of my house. It’s just what you do with your family.”