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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 [...]]]> 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.  :)

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 [...]]]> 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!

A guest at [...]]]> 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.

Welcome back to the Catholic Worker, I think to myself.  In the end, we managed to get the air conditioner back inside, but too late.  The fan had broken upon impact on the porch roof.

Meta and I are now moved back into the House of Hospitality.  The house is still a wreck, though the responsibility for this no longer falls on previous residents.  The walls have been painted, the wood floors stripped and refinished, the electrical outlets and light switches are all in working order, and the toilets flush without leaking.  The house is ready to shine – it just needs us to unpack all our boxes, put away our things, and give the place a good cleaning.

There are still a great number of repairs to be made, however.  The roof and supports over the back porch are rotted and need replacing, along with the stairs leading up to the apartment over the detached garage and a good deal of the siding on the House of Hospitality.  The back porch at the Guesthouse is rotting through, and the repair list for the Guesthouse must be nearly as long as the Plowshares‘ collective rap sheet.  We’ve just started on the application for rehab funds from the City of Olympia, and should soon have the money to being making the repairs.

We are deeply grateful for the outpouring of support since our big community meeting in June.  Scores of volunteers have stepped forward to help restore our buildings, donations have grown, and (!!!) the Tides Foundation sent us an unsolicited grant of $10,000 to support our general budget.  This is the first August that I can recall in which Bread & Roses has not been out of money.

Our guests are doing very well.  A young mother and her daughter moved into their own place in July, and a second young family is preparing to move to a new apartment within the next couple weeks.  We are starting to plan out our community meals, and the guests are showing signs of anticipation – offering to help cook, hinting about the “best” family recipe, planning their schedules around the meals, etc.

I am so very thankful for their patience.  In the midst of all the chaos lately, the guests have had a difficult time getting their needs met from us.  The plumbing seems always to be springing leaks, the toilet paper runs out, food runs short, there are boxes and furniture and piles of random things in the yard, and yet the guests show the kind of cheerful perseverance that can really only be found among people who have survived real poverty.  [Note: Most of these issues are now being addressed as we are starting to settle in.]

I’ve never really understood the Catholic Worker commitment to voluntary poverty, and have always said that “simplicity” seems good enough for me.  But our guests remind me of the value in poverty: hardship makes good people into great people. And the point of all this is not merely to house and feed people in need, but rather to make ourselves into better people, to create a world in which it is “easier for people to be good”.  I fear sometimes that I would lack the courage and the character to be as great as our guests if I were to face their same adversity.  I am like the rich man who could not answer Christ’s call to give up all he had and follow God.

Enough navel gazing for the morning.  The day is ripening, the sun is shining, our cat is out chasing the squirrels, and I’ve got to get to work.  As things settle in, we’ll be blogging more often.  Please stay tuned!

Annual Operating Budget 2009-2010

Bread & Roses Progress Report

Here’s the deal with the dinners:  We invite our friends, family, neighbors, and supporters.  Our guests at the Women’s Guesthouse invite their [...]]]> 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.

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 [...]]]> 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.

The board members are:

• Sue Allen, Executive Director, Capital Clubhouse
• Patricia Barron, Stakeholder Representative
• Chris Bauermeister, Professional Academic
• Laura Foster, Stakeholder Representative
• Matthew Green, former Olympia City Councilmember
• Selena Kilmoyer, Executive Director, Out of the Woods Shelter
• Schelli Slaughter, Executive Director, Family Support Center
• Theresa Slusher, Community Services Division Manager, Housing Authority

The previous Bread & Roses staff have left. Advocacy services for guests will, for now, be provided by the Family Support Center. A boardmember will be staying at the House of Hospitality overnight to provide emergency assistance for the guests.

All the guests living at the Women’s Guest House and the rear unit at the House of Hospitality are welcome to stay. No guests are being asked to leave.

Due to the loss of funding, the advocacy center we operated on 4th Avenue in downtown is now closed. Capitol Clubhouse is working to take on some of the services formerly provided there, including shower and laundry vouchers and mail-pickup, but some services – notably street outreach – have been lost.

The board has paid off all debt, imposed new financial controls, and starting writing a new budget and policies.

What are our near-term plans?

In the next few months, we will clean and renovate the House of Hospitality. This includes removing all trash inside and out, and repairing and maintaining the landscaping. Also, we are looking at replacing the dumpster with a set of regular garbage cans.

By August, two long-time volunteers will move in to the House of Hospitality as resident hosts of Bread & Roses. Phil Owen and Meta Hogan have years of professional experience in homeless advocacy, including with Bread & Roses several years ago.

Meanwhile, the board will be working to rebuild a proper administrative system, get our finances under control, and reach out to our donors and the larger community.

Please help us plan our future.

The board is starting work on a plan for the future of Bread & Roses. We invite you to be a part of that discussion. To start, we are hosting a public meeting.

Public Meeting on the Future of Bread & Roses

Thursday, June 25, 2009 7:00 PM

St. Michael Catholic Parish

1208 11th Ave SE, Olympia

At this public meeting, we will answer your questions about what has happened so far and what is happening now at Bread & Roses. Then, we will ask for your answers to questions about our future.

For example, what services are most needed in our community? How we can best provide them? How can we be a better neighbor? What might interest you in being involved with Bread & Roses? We would love to hear your thoughts.

Meanwhile, if you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions, please contact me directly at (360) 402-5529 or matthew.olympia@gmail.com.

The mission of Bread & Roses remains the same: to serve, in love, the homeless, poor, and marginalized people in our community. During this transition, we are working so that Bread & Roses can become a stronger organization in the future, better able to serve people in need, and a better neighbor. Thank you for your support and assistance towards that goal.

Sincerely,

Matthew Green

President of the Board,

Bread & Roses

(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’.” [...]]]> 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!

On Friday, May 15th, the Realtors Association sent a VERY large crowd of volunteers to help us clean the House of Hospitality. They cleared [...]]]> 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!