Our newsletter is now available for download (pdf format).  Check it out!

Download:

B&R_newsletter_Nov_09[1]

There is a funny story in the Catholic Worker that the movement was founded on the basis of a “soup” recipe: Make too much, invite too many.

At Bread & Roses, we’ve got this recipe down pat.  We baked 6 turkeys and had close to 30 people over for Thanksgiving dinner this year.  Guests included volunteers (thank you Tom, Roxanne, Dana, and kids!), in-laws (thanks for coming Martin!), women from the B&R shelter, families from the Family Support Center’s shelter, and a couple folks from Camp Quixote.

It was a great time.  We danced around to the Pogues and Irish Independence music while baking turkeys, pies, and pumpkin bread.  Meta gave proper instructions for “see-food” to the small children (much to the delight of the parents).  Pets chewed on stew bones.  And there was an abundance of food.

Special thanks to Maria Garner (with FUMCO and the Volunteer Center) for chasing down the turkeys!  Hope you didn’t get too winded, Maria.  :)

The Family Support Center has opened a new shelter for families with children, in response to the closure of the Salvation Army’s family shelter.  They badly need volunteers to staff the shelter!  This means that you could directly help ensure that no child sleeps on an Olympia sidewalk.  Besides, shelter staffing in a family shelter mostly involves playing with a bunch of little kids – what could be more fun!

For full details on the volunteer opportunity, please visit the Family Support Center’s listing on the Volunteer Center site.

Supporters may now donate online

Bread & Roses now accepts online donations through JustGive.org!  Just click on the “Donate Now” button on the right sidebar. Don’t miss the “make this a recurring donation” option.  :)

Please welcome our new board members

Nanci Lamusga, Emily Lardner, and Shannon Ford have graciously accepted invitations to join Bread & Roses’ board of directors.

Nanci was a founding member of the Bread & Roses community in the early 1980’s (she traveled here from the Des Moines Catholic Worker) and has strong nonprofit management experience.

Emily co-directs the Washington Center for Improving the Quality of Undergraduate Education – a public service center at The Evergreen State College – and is returning to Bread & Roses’ board after a couple years off.

Shannon Ford is a program manager at the Capital Clubhouse and got her start in human services as an intern at the Bread & Roses Advocacy Center.

Welcome back to the B&R community, folks!

Moving forward financially

Bread & Roses has contracted with a new book-keeper to provide stronger, more in-depth oversight of our finances.  Gerda Wynkoop will be managing our books and reporting to the board of directors.  Gerda is a highly experienced professional who came with strong recommendations from the local nonprofit community.

Other great news: Thanks to a very generous gift from the Tides Foundation, as well as the very hard work of our Treasurer (Chris Bauermeister) and the rest of the board, Bread & Roses is having a stronger (financially speaking) September than we’ve had in many, many years!  We owe a big “thank-you” to our supporters, neighbors, volunteers, families and friends for coming to our aid as we’ve worked to bounce back from a rough year.  Thanks to you, we’re building momentum!

Garden fun

Several of the guests from our women’s shelter have put in an extraordinary amount of hard work as we’ve started rehabilitating our fruit/veggie gardens.  Their reward will come at this Friday’s dinner when I break out the pies made from our home grown fruit!  We’ve all had a great time working (and eating) together.

Stay tuned

We may soon have video capability, which means YouTube embedded videos here on our blog.  We’re thinking along the lines of a virtual tour, community updates, board member and volunteer interviews… let us know what you’d like to hear about and who you’d like to hear from!

So I’m hanging out the window, one hand gripping the window frame, the other grasping tightly to the edge of our only air conditioning unit – the one that just fell out the window.  Rivers of sweat pour down my face, dripping from my chin and evaporating in the sticky hot velvet air.

A guest at our family shelter offers assistance: “Give me your hand.”  Like Indiana Jones reaching for the Holy Grail in the final scenes of “The Last Crusade”, I consider my choice: air conditioning in the 100+ degree weather, or the safety of the of the second story bedroom floor in the Guesthouse.  Luckily I am no Indiana Jones, and my feet are firmly planted on the roof of the front porch.

→ Continue reading "General Update"

Bread & Roses’ Annual Operating Budget has been approved by the board and is now available for viewing and comment.  A report on our current progress is also available.  Please read and let us know what you think!

Annual Operating Budget 2009-2010

Bread & Roses Progress Report

You are invited to join us for our weekly Friday night potluck dinners.  We will begin hosting the dinners on Friday, August 7th (7:00 PM).  Our address is 1320 8th Ave SE, Olympia 98501

Here’s the deal with the dinners:  We invite our friends, family, neighbors, and supporters.  Our guests at the Women’s Guesthouse invite their friends and family.  We put on some music (think Woody Guthrie or Utah Phillips), lay out the food, eat, laugh, and chase the children around the house.  It’s a really good time.

The Friday dinners are also the best way to get to know our community.  Interested in volunteering?  Come to dinner and you’ll get plugged in.  Want to know who your contributions support and how?  Come meet them and share a meal together!

To learn more about our dinners, and why we host them, please see our “Community Meals” page on this website.

June 25th 7:00PM St Michael’s Parish

From Bread & Roses’ Board President:

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

As you may be aware, Bread & Roses is going through a transition. We want to tell you about it and invite you to help guide our future.

I am the new president. On behalf of the new board of directors, I am writing to introduce ourselves, tell you about our plans, and ask for your input.

What has happened with Bread & Roses recently?

In the past few months, almost the entire board of directors of Bread & Roses has changed. The new board has years of experience dealing with local housing and homeless issues.

→ Continue reading "Get all the facts – B&R Informational Meeting"

Six volunteers from Olympia Action Network spent Saturday morning last weekend scrubbing and priming walls for painting. Thanks to these generous volunteers, we’re almost ready to paint!

(From OAN’s website) “Inspired by President Obama’s call for change, the Olympia Action Network is a service organization that provides our community with opportunities to ‘be the change’.” If you are interested in joining OAN, email olyactionnetwork@hotmail.com or visit their Facebook page.

Thanks OAN!

Big tasks require a dedicated community. Fixing up the House of Hospitality has been a big task – a big task made much smaller by the Thurston County Realtors Association!

On Friday, May 15th, the Realtors Association sent a VERY large crowd of volunteers to help us clean the House of Hospitality. They cleared the front yard to make way for a veggie garden, trimmed and pruned the back yard, emptied the house of all garbage and clutter (filling an entire construction dumpster!), and got a good start at priming the interior walls for painting. Hundreds of volunteer hours – all in one morning.

We’d be lost without the very generous support of people like our local realtors.

Great job, folks!