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.
It was a move designed to meet the needs of SPiN volunteers and guests, and to show some cooperation with our neighbors.
In other words… Everybody Wins.
Continue reading “SPiN moves sack lunch service to Ramaley Park”“I’m a pretty organized guy,” says Marc Stroud. “Most people who know me would agree. But it’s even more important to build consensus. As a leader, I’m driven by consensus.”
The Associate Pastor of Oak Harbor Lutheran Church knows SPiN Cafe well. He served as our Board President until two years ago. After reassuming the role from Bob Wall, he’s excited to face 2020’s latest challenges and bring a new direction that redefines the way SPiN serves our community.
Asked about SPiN’s future, Pastor Stroud pauses to contemplate a worldwide pandemic and the vast changes it has brought to our local Whidbey Island scene. Just last January, SPiN was without a home, struggling to provide three hot meals a week at two local churches. But “we’ve found something we do well, really well,” he says. “We serve lunches. We’re doing a great job at it, and it has been an important service for homeless people and other hungry folks. Our lunch service also provides a great opportunity for those who want to help us with our mission of Serving People in Need.”
Stroud comes to SPiN’s mission with deep commitment to working with those in extreme poverty. When living in Portland, OR, he helped establish “Bread and Prayer” to feed and serve at Union Gospel Mission. And, at Luther Place in Washington, DC, Stroud worked at the edge of the “Great Burnout” section devastated by the riots of the late 1960s. He saw “great poverty… and great anger” there in those times, and he understands the rage and despair that naturally arise from a constant struggle to survive. He sees clear parallels to those days in the unrest and protests across the country this year.
“After the end of COVID,” Stroud says, “of course we want to continue to provide the lunches we’ve discovered we do so well.” Beyond that, he and the Board envision a return to a regular evening meal program with a reliable and warm indoor day center “where people can get a cup of coffee, stay out of the weather, and talk to each other.”
Like people do in a community.
SPiN Executive Director Tom Saunders is excited to have Stroud back at the wheel. “It has been great working with Marc the past few weeks,” Saunders says. “His organizational skills will do well at building the foundation for SPiN Cafe’s growth for the future.”
Pastor Stroud sees a great opportunity to build consensus and support among businesses and institutions in Oak Harbor, “to let them know that we’re still here, we’re part of the community, and we want to collaborate with them. We want to build synergy and work together.”
In 2018, for a previous article, Pastor Stroud was happy to discuss the strong work his Lutheran parishioners brought to SPiN Cafe. Today, he’s back behind the wheel, bringing solid leadership in uncertain times.
Many thanks to Pastor Marc Stroud for your devotion to SPiN Cafe.
If you ever wonder whether your support of SPiN Cafe does any good… if you’re not clear who benefits… if you need a reminder of the lives that get turned around thanks to your donations… read on.
There’s a line in an old country song, “The cards are stacked against ya, girl, get back in bed…” But some folks don’t listen to the fates, they just keep on going. Tangiler London lost her job, her husband, her home, and her health in less than a year. It nearly crushed her. But SPiN Cafe propped her up when she needed it, as we reported here in April of 2018. And she’s been gratefully helping SPiN ever since.
Continue reading “Catching up with Tangiler London”Another quarter, another three solid months of increased service from SPiN Cafe.
SPiN Executive Director Tom Saunders recently released stats comparing monthly meals served in all of 2019 and through August of this year.
In years past,” said Saunders, “we only served hot dinner meals indoors three days a week to those persons in need. With the response we have seen from our 2020 operations since mid-March, the sack meal program is reaching far more people than before and as such, consideration must be given to maintaining the program after we are able to serve hot meals indoors once again.”
Monthly increases this year are partly due to a gradual move to seven-day-a-week service, which we achieved in August thanks to the volunteer efforts from churches and community groups from all over the North Whidbey area. As meal service numbers increased, so did the number of volunteer hours.
SPiN isn’t finished yet with our growing efforts to serve the community. A return to evening meal service, and a reimagined day center during the approaching colder weather months, are on the horizon.
This will require a new influx of support from the community, both financially and in volunteer assistance.
Meanwhile, the numbers continue to bear it out: SPiN’s reach to serve the community is increasing, and the community, more and more, is giving back.
Support SPin on our donation page.
For information on how you can volunteer, please contact Carol Wall at spincafeoh@gmail.com.