wfn.org | Cafi serves up hope, dignity to needy

["NewsDesk" <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Feb. 5, 2004  News media contact: Tim Tanton7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn. 7
E-mail: newsdesk@umcom.org 7 ALL{039}

NOTE: A UMTV report is available with this story at umns.umc.org or
www.umtv.org.

By Kim Riemland*

SEATTLE (UMNS) - Walk into Boomtown Cafi, in the heart of downtown Seattle,
and you're greeted with decorative sconces on brightly painted walls, the hum
of conversation as the lunch crowd packs in, and the aroma of three
generously portioned daily specials.

You probably wouldn't notice that this is a non-profit restaurant, set up to
feed those who are homeless or low income. Not noticing is the point.

"Rather than going into a soup kitchen, the folks can come into a cafi and be
served because that's a treat and everybody deserves that," says Kara Martin,
Boomtown Cafi development associate. 

Boomtown Cafi began serving meals in 1999. Today, the ecumenical restaurant
serves 500 meals - breakfast and lunch - each weekday, dishing out dignity as
well as nutritious, hot food.

"Places like the (rescue) mission and everything else, you know, they're
good, but still again, it's not really giving us hope like this place is,"
says customer Delvikeo LeCour. "This place is giving us a lot of hope because
it's making us feel wanted in society." 

Unlike most feeding programs, the cafi offers menu choices. People can sit at
tables and booths with their friends, eat from nice plates and enjoy the
comfort of a real restaurant. 

"It's not like you're waiting in a long line, you get a slop of food on your
plate and then you go," says Lisa Anthony of Kennydale United Methodist
Church.

Anthony and others from her church are among those who attend monthly
fund-raising dinners at the cafi. She says the healthy and wholesome meal
choices at the cafi are especially important to the chronic homeless who have
a high rate of diabetes and other health problems related to poor nutrition.

The food is inexpensive but not free. Breakfast costs $1.25, and lunch is
$1.75. 
Customers can pay with cash or food stamps, or they can earn credit by
working in the restaurant. They can wash dishes, bus tables, deliver food and
even entertain other customers with the old piano in the corner to earn meal
credits. Each 15 minutes worked equals one meal.

"People don't want just a handout," Martin says. "The food is served, and if
they have a complaint, they have a right to say, 'My food is cold,' or 'I
asked for this and you gave me this instead.' You can't do that in a soup
kitchen."

"The staff here don't look at us bad, they look at us like we're somebody,
which we all are," says customer Saleem Abbddulah, who works at the
restaurant.

Kristin Ellison-Oslin, a deacon at Seattle's First United Methodist Church,
says her congregation supports the cafi with a special fund, by attending
fund-raising dinners and by contracting with the cafi for catered meals.

Boomtown's customers hunger for more than just food, she says. "They're
hungry for grace, acceptance, appropriate treatment - you know, the treatment
that you would expect."

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*Riemland is a United Methodist News Service correspondent based in Seattle.

 
 

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United Methodist News Service
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