It’s after 5:30 p.m. on a wet Wednesday night, Nov. 17. Groups of elderly people, young adults, mothers with children and single men are gathered around tables chatting and eating food prepared for the Renton Salvation Army’s Community Supper program.
Now in its fifth month, the program has grown from serving 10 people on opening night back in June, to an average of 60 people currently. The supper program feeds the hungry Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights from 5:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m. at the Salvation Army Church. Wednesday nights are the busiest, sometimes with more than 75 people.
Organizers are calling this a good start considering the Renton homeless count was at 90 people, when recorded in the 2009 One Night Count in King County. This is the first supper program for the Renton Salvation Army and organizers meant for it to be a compliment to other food programs in the city.
“I consider the program a success because of the high numbers,” said Capt. Terry Masango of the Salvation Army Renton Corps. “The repeat diners talk about how they tell their friends about the supper.”
The dinner nets a good mix of people of various ages and races. There is a group of senior citizens that come from Cedar River Terrace for fellowship. Even though they can afford to cook, they are lonely, Masango said.
“The number of homeless, of course, is fairly high as well, but we have also seen some families,” he said.
A man who wished to be quoted simply as “Mark,” said he has no other choice besides the Salvation Army.
“I’m glad it’s here, just glad it’s here,” he said.
Mark goes to the food bank and the YWCA for food rations but said it’s only enough to last a couple of days. He has a barbecue but no pots and pans. “It’s hard to cook in this kind of weather,” he said.
Tommy, who is sometimes homeless, likes coming to the supper because “it fights off depression.”
The food is more nutritious and comes in better portions than what he can get for a dollar at McDonald’s, he said.
Visitors to the supper program line up before 5:30 p.m. in the back of the building, come in, use hand sanitizer to wash up before shuffling into the serving line. They are allowed seconds and food to take home as long as there is some left.
Herb Wendland also frequents the supper program to stave off depression and save money. He said he was once a member of the middle class but now lives on Social Security disability assistance, alone in a trailer.
“It gives you something to do, gets you out of the cold,” Wendland said.
A core group of 12 churches support the supper program financially and with volunteers. It is funded with a minimum contribution of $1,000 per church, but some give more than that. Organizers also received a significant amount from a three-year internal Salvation Army ministry grant and the Army Renton Corps advisory board raised $49,000 last June to support this program.
“I always say if you can feed one person that’s success, but the numbers that come through validates the urgency and necessity of the need for this community feeding supper,” said Rev. Linda Smith. She was there Wednesday night with volunteers from her church, SKY Center for Spiritual Living.
Smith, who is also on the City of Renton’s Human Services Board, was on the planning committee for the supper program.
She called the program a sign of hope for people, who might only get one meal a day.
Masango said they are set for volunteers through Dec. 31 but may have some gaps in coverage through May.
“As long as we continue to have community support, we want to continue to run this program,” he said. “As long a we have hungry people we want to continue to feed them.”
They haven’t run out of food yet, which comes from local grocery stores and the food bank. Although it’s a challenge never knowing how many people are going to show, cook Lynn Bartlett has been successful.
“I just want to thank the people that make it work,” she said.
Seventy-one people were fed Nov. 17.
