Today’s online Washington Post is featuring a big story investigating efforts to relook at how our country reaches out to hungry people.

Here’s an excerpt:

In soup kitchens, food pantries and universities across the country, activists are planting the seeds for an overhaul of the way America feeds its more than 35 million hungry people, the first major challenge to a system largely developed in the 1960s.
They have begun providing food where people live and work, reconsidering the need for big, urban facilities and pushing for larger government food subsidies.
The goal is to make food more easily available to working poor women, children and others who, research shows, are a larger portion of the hungry than the urban homeless. They also hope to lessen the stigma associated with standing in line for a hot meal or groceries.

Link: A Fresh Look At How Best To Get Food To 35 Million

The Lincoln Journal Star recently ran an article on the plans for Matt Talbot Kitchen and Outreach to move to a new location.
Link: Nonprofit projects get planners’ approval

I just want to say a quick thank you to everyone who worked so hard to make tonight’s meal a success!  Although the preparation of the frybread was yet another adventure, the meal was very well received and ran very smoothly.  I can’t say enough how wonderful it is to work with all of you to serve our neighbors at Matt Talbot.  There were many fun moments tonight, from the American Indian gentlemen who jovially poked some fun at our frybread, to the sweetheart in the high chair with ice cream running down her chin, to the opportunity to learn some sign language from the four hearing impaired guests who shared the meal with us – I cherish so much about this experience.  Thank you for making it possible!

Switching gears a bit, I have been in touch with Pastor William Barth of Nebraska Prison Ministries (NPM).  After a brief introduction about our group and our interests in serving others, I inquired how A Place at the Table might be of service to the imprisoned, indicating that we might be particularly interested in volunteering in some way at the women’s prison in York (including an idea about a prison garden to feed the homeless), since it is in our local area.  He is willing to explore the possibility of facilitating such a partnership and has offered to meet with us as a group to discuss NPM, and particularly a new reentry/aftercare program that gaining some momentum in Nebraska.  He indicated that he would also like us to get in touch with a Ms. Lauri Westfall from Grand Island who is our local Operations Chief for this program in central Nebraska.

Finding a way to serve the imprisoned seems like a natural growth of our mission and I would very much like to invite Pastor Barth to meet with our group.  I would like to find a time and place where many of us could commit to be present to explore this with him.  If this interests you, please let me know so that I can gauge interest in this mission before I commit to a meeting.  I understand that “going inside” might be uncomfortable or even frightening to some, and I want to be sensitive to that.  But I also know that I feel driven to seek out those on the margins of society and I personally am willing to stretch past the unease I will undoubtedly feel.  I hope some of you will be as well.

Lastly, the last couple of days have been historic for any number of reasons.  Yesterday, Dr. Martin Luther King would have turned 80 years old, and today marked a new era in American politics.  I am reminded of a rather famous quote by King that continues to inspire me, and I’d like to share it with you:

 “Anyone can be great because everyone can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve… You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love.”

I believe we can create opportunities not only for we ourselves to serve, but we can facilitate those same opportunities for others to serve those less fortunate than themselves, and in doing so we might all find a bit more wholeness within ourselves.  Please let me know if you’d like to join me in meeting with Pastor Barth.

Namasté.

If you’ve visited the website in the past, you’ll notice that things are a bit different here – most notably that the group previously known as ‘Servants at Heart’ is now A Place at the Table! 

Drawing upon the momentum of the past few months, we’ve decided to incorporate and seek 501(c)3 tax exempt status from the IRS.  Doing so will strengthen the foundation we’ve built, allow donors to deduct their contributions, and position us to expand our mission by increasing our fundraising effectiveness!

Our mission and vision remain unchanged, however…we are still committed to humbly serving the homeless, the working poor, the sick, lonely, and imprisoned.  We seek to see Jesus in the faces we find at the margins of society, and acknowledge His presence in them with unconditional love.

The year 2009 is full of hope and promise – I look forward to sharing this journey with all of you.  May we make new friends, grow some veggies, trade lots of smiles, fill many stomachs, and plant the seeds of peace, hope, and joy wherever we go in the months to come! 

Many thanks to Pat Sullivan for his very hard and valuable work in preparing the many and various documents needed to incorporate and seek 501(c)3 status!