2022 got off to a frigid start in Oak Harbor, but SPiN was able to step up and offer round-the-clock shelter for two weeks courtesy of our hosts at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church. For more on that story, take a look here:
In the first four months of 2022, SPiN provided 2,442 lunches – at St. Stephen’s during the week and at Hal Ramaley Park on weekends – and served on all 120 days in those months, for an average a little over 20 meals a day.
Are you all about great music, excellent food, and time with neighbors who care about SPiN Café?
Get your tickets today for SPiN’s Spring Fling!
Spring has certainly sprung around our gorgeous island. At SPiN, even in the season’s promise we’re reminded of the hard work we need to do every day to serve our community’s most vulnerable citizens – and to keep them safe, fed, and healthy.
SPiN’s Spring Fling is your chance to play a part as we keep that mission going.
“It was fifty-one years ago… man, that’s amazing… it was 1971, and a bunch of us in college at Western started a band. We opened for the Chambers Brothers in Bellingham, and that was it. We didn’t need college, we opened for the Chambers Brothers! They were huge! So we moved to Seattle…”
Jamar Jenkins brings his guitar groove to SPiN’s Spring Fling, May 21.
The band morphed into Cold, Bold, and Together, a mainstay of the thriving Seattle funk scene in the 70s. Like Jamar, a guy named Kenny G got his years-long saxophone career started with CBT in the clubs of Seattle.
SPiN Café was pretty quiet on a recent Wednesday afternoon. You know how you’re sitting at dinner and it’s loud and chatty and then the food comes and everyone shuts up and eats, because it just tastes and feels so good after a long day?
It was that kind of quiet. A quiet of relief, gratitude, and hope as SPiN’s dinner program spins back to full speed.
Helping hands, back to making real meals for SPiN guests
Executive Director Michele Chapman smiled with that same relief and gratitude as she chatted about the meals, open to all who are hungry. SPiN has struggled to feed guests since late 2019 through COVID, funding challenges, and a change of location.
“We worked extra hard for two years,” Michele says, “just to make sack lunches for our guests. Now it’s wonderful, and our guests are so grateful, that once again we can provide…” she pauses, “…a real meal.”
SPiN is now providing those dinners to 25-30 people on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday evenings.
Real meals were on tables around the room as guests thanked Tangiler, Shirley, Kaya, and Amira for bringing plates piled high with casserole, bread, and vegetables.
With funding from an Island County grant, SPiN restarted dinner service in March, stepping back into a tradition that began when SPiN was founded and paused abruptly two years ago with COVID.
St.Stephen’s Episcopal Church has been a constant through that tough time, welcoming SPiN guests while masking and distancing were required. Michele is grateful for the support, and she laughs that the easing of virus restrictions has brought about more contact with church members. “We have to remind ourselves, we aren’t the only ones here anymore!”
Asked if anything would make the dinner service better, Michele is quick to answer, “more volunteers!” Chef Tangiler cooks the meals at the Presbyterian church and transports the huge trays a few blocks over to St Stephen’s, where volunteers serve to the guests. “We could use a few more people each night to help out.”
On the horizon, the one-time county grant runs out at the end of this year. Michele and the SPiN board have a fundraising task ahead of them, to ensure the future of the program.
For now, though, real meals are a real deal.
SPiN Café’s Day Center is open Monday through Friday, 6:30AM – 5:30PM
Dinners are served Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, 4:15PM – 5:30PM
At St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, 555 SE Regatta Drive, Oak Harbor
Fe Mischo has orbited in the SPiN Café universe since the beginning.
When SPiN started out on Bayshore Drive, Fe already knew and respected SPiN founder Vivian Rogers Decker. Fe worked at ECEAP preschool (Early Childhood Education Assistance Program), where she sought out and advocated for families facing financial struggles and homelessness. She dropped off resource materials for families at SPiN, and got a firsthand look at the good things SPiN was doing for Oak Harbor.
“I was homeless myself at one point in my life,” Fe says. “I was 20 years old, with no place to live. All I had was my Nissan, so that’s where I slept. I had too much pride to ask my family for help. So many of us don’t want to acknowledge that we’re just one financial blow away from the streets. For me, it helps that I can relate, personally.”
From those early days of SPiN, Fe saw the way every guest was treated with respect and dignity. She knew this was an organization she could support.
Two years ago, as COVID sent workers and students into isolation, Fe left her job at the preschool to be home with her kids. Like a lot of women – and she’s quick to note accurately that women in the workforce took the blow in disproportionate numbers – Fe refocused her attention on her family while she rode out the lockdowns and closures of the pandemic.
A recent part-time spot serving lunches to SPiN guests drew her back to the workforce. As a longtime friend and supporter of SPiN’s mission, Fe knew exactly what she was getting into, and she’s glad she did. And in an odd happy twist, for this person whose job is to serve, Fe feels the joy and gratitude coming back at her.
