Please visit us for our open house!

Come see the progress we’ve made fixing up the House of Hospitality, check out our garden plans, and peruse our photo album.

Meet and chat with guests, volunteer hosts, board members, and other Bread & Roses supporters.

Eat yummy snacks, listen to good music, and even dance in our kitchen if you like!

Bread [...]]]>

Please visit us for our open house!

Come see the progress we’ve made fixing up the House of Hospitality, check out our garden plans, and peruse our photo album.

Meet and chat with guests, volunteer hosts, board members, and other Bread & Roses supporters.

Eat yummy snacks, listen to good music, and even dance in our kitchen if you like!

Bread & Roses’ volunteer hosts, board members, and guests will be available to answer any questions you may have.

We’ll have copies of our newsletter, progress reports, budget, and finance reports handy for you to look over.

But, most importantly, we’ll have good music and great snacks!

Saturday, Dec 12th

Donations will be gratefully accepted.

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.  :)

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!