Michele Chapman is Executive Director of SPiN Cafe.
The last 6 months have been a blessing not only to the guests that come to SPiN, but also to those of us who serve. We re-opened our doors on February 3, 2021 at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church adding the Day Shelter to our Sack Lunch program. The Day Shelter is open from 6:30 am to 5:30 pm Monday through Friday and provides a safe, dry place for people to rest, access wi-fi, get beverages, snacks and lunch. Many of our guests arrive first thing in the morning from The Haven, some come to us on the transit bus or on foot, and some by private vehicle.
It’s always a great day when a U.S. Navy squadron appears out of the blue to offer assistance. For SPiN Cafe, that great day happened two months ago when VAQ 209, the Star Warriors of NAS Whidbey, approached us to offer support to our sack meal program.
SPiN Cafe is overjoyed to announce that Living Word Church of Oak Harbor has chosen to team with us in our sack meal program. Thanks to Living Word’s support and partnership, we will now be able to add Mondays to our meal service at Flintstone Park.
In addition, strong networking among our local faith community has brought enough support from members of Oak Harbor Presbyterian Church to cover meals on alternating Fridays.
SPiN Board member Tom Saunders serves a hungry guest, with proper social distancing.
This makes 4 days a week, plus every other Friday, that meals will be provided to those most vulnerable in our community! This fabulous news represents a wonderful and valuable addition to SPiN Cafe’s efforts alongside the three churches already committed to the program: St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, Church on the Rock, and Christian Reformed Church.
Serving on these additional days shortens the gap in our meal program, in which our vulnerable neighbors have, until now, struggled to find a meal between Thursdays and Tuesdays. We continue to serve nearly two dozen people at 12:30PM in front of Flintstone Park on Bayshore Drive.
With onoing support from our citizens, in particular our wonderful faith community in Oak Harbor, we look forward to the ability to extend meal service to seven days a week. Thank you all for your donations, your prayers, and your tireless devotion to SPiN’s mission!
SPiN Cafe would like to recognize the generosity and support from bayleaf in lovely Coupeville for providing sandwiches for delivery to those in need from our community. It is comforting, even as they too struggle to pay their own bills in these strange and confusing times, to have our local businesses step up to the challenge of feeding the most vulnerable among us.
With the closure of indoor meal spaces due to the coronavirus, SPiN Cafe continues to maintain a feeding program for the most vulnerable members of our community. This has required tremendous volunteer efforts from a core group of our supporters. Beginning March 17, our program has served over 20 meals per day.
