Community Dining Room

A free lunch is provided Sunday through Friday 12 Noon - 1:00 PM  and a brunch is provided every Saturday 11 AM to 12 Noon for all who seek food support.  Usually 50 to 85 persons receive a hot nutritious meal on any given day.  Some come for food support alone while others, grappling with lonliness as well as the issues of those living on small incomes, find a friendly face and listening ear each day.  In calendar year 2018 we served 21,037 daily meals in the Community Dining Room.

Families with children attend this dinner which offers not only a kid friendly menu but include craft projects and cultural diversity and other creative additions.  Parents have a chance to enjoy a family dinner "out" while their kids receive interactional experiences.  Anywhere from 20 -40 individuals participate in this program to help stretch weekly budgets by attending program.  This program provides students with interactive and fun experiences outside the regular school setting. In 2018, we served 2096 family meals.
 .

Our Wednesday and Friday night take out programs were  developed to meet the increasing needs of the middle class for food support in order to stretch their income and meet the needs of their families .  Families feeling the difficulities of the economic downturn, having lost hours at work or their jobs entirely, can register for the Wednesday weekly or Friday twice a month family style meals to be picked up and used for dinner later that night. In 2018, 3808 meals were provided under this program.

Community service is offered ongoing for students.  In order to fulfill school requirements students perform a varity of tasks for and with the CDR which include not only food preparation, serving and clean up but food drives, volunteer opportunities and special academic research projects.  Students work under the guidance of the CDR Volunteer Coordinator. The CDR places a strong emphasis on providing youth of all ages with volunteer opportunities which give them hands on experiences and insights into the merits and joys of volunteering.  Most students who volunteer with the CDR do so for several years throughout their academic education.  This non-traditional approach to learning, outside the school setting, is a valuable tool for students as they become the leaders of the future.