On this blog, we have shared a lot of astounding (and depressing) numbers relating to poverty, hunger, and those in the greater Seattle area who go without. We have shared some amazing numbers about OSL’s meals, our clients, and pounds of food that we are able to rescue from local partners. We love to tell stories of what these numbers look like, putting a face to the faceless, and sharing the names of the nameless.

But today, we are going to do what makes us cringe. We are going to put away the humanitarian aspect of the work we do, and try to put it all into 6 simple numbers: the Down & Dirty Financials.

• 4 million meals that OSL has served since our inception in 1989
• $2.7 million 2014 total budget
• $800,000 OSL needs to raise in donations in 2014
• 91 Cents of every dollar donated to OSL goes directly to meal creation.
• 4 Dollars of in-kind food we are able to secure with every dollar donated
• 1 Person needed to save someone’s life.

That person can be you.

Today is the Seattle Foundations GiveBig event. Today, May 6th, a little bit further. The meal that you fund today might create another in Seattle Foundations Stretch Pool, or an additional 250 meals if we win a Golden Ticket.

Visit our Seattle Foundation profile here and support our work.

Together, we can save somebody’s life.

Working within an economically growing community, in financially healthy state, in one of the most wealthy nations of the world, the staff of OSL are surrounded each day by individuals who struggle with not having enough to eat. The base issue behind the need for organizations like ours is simple: Poverty.

In the midst 99% movement, the conversations about a higher minimum wage within the limits of the City of Seattle, we are bombarded with amazing statistics: 15.1% of households live in extreme poverty in the county, and these households shelters one out of three African American children. The average CEO earns in one hour of work what their average paid employee makes in one month. Income inequality is alive in well in this a world.

At OSL we work break the cycle of poverty. We pay sustainable wages, and often hire from our client base. At the time that this is being published, at least 62% of the individuals employed by OSL have had experiences with homelessness, substance issues, or have been victims of domestic violence. This gives our staff a unique connection with our clientele. It also requires OSL to practice patience, and forgiveness as an employer. We provide training and benefits to those whom others deem unemployable. We offer a second, or third or fourth, chance to those who are able to ask, and even to those who are not. Not all of our stories have happy endings, but some of them do.

Chef Paul is a wonderful player on the OSL team, and today we share with you his story, told in his own words.

I knew as a young boy at the age of 12 that I would be involved in the food industry one way or another. My father was in the restaurant business and I thought I wanted to be just like him. I spent much of my youth learning to become a master cake decorator and by the time I was 18 the doors were wide open. The world, as they say, was my oyster. I went to work for Kroeger’s as a cake decorator and pastry chef for 11 years, however I had a dark secret that started to send me in a downward spiral; the long destructive path of drug abuse.

I spent 20 years going from town to town and sofa to sofa still denying I had any sort of problem. I became a great prevaricator and was able to camouflage my addictions for long periods of time. In October of 2005 I moved to Seattle still very addicted to cocaine. I learned to be an excellent story teller and could blend into any environment like a chameleon. I came up with an elaborate account that I was a Hurricane Katrina evacuee in hopes that someone would take pity on me and give me a place to stay. Things got out of hand and one lie led to another which led to another and before I knew it know it I was up to my eyeballs in lies. The problem with lying, with living life as a lie, is that it erodes into your very soul and not only does your self- esteem disintegrate, but it is impossible to remember what you told to whom. Pretty soon the discrepancies become apparent.

Anyway, I ended up homeless and became a client of the Compass Center in Seattle where I was given shelter and some hope. There, I met Beverly Graham and Krista Grimm from OPERATION: Sack Lunch. The lies continued to grow because I wanted to impress them. They embraced me like I was a family member and before I knew it OSL offered me a job in the kitchen as a cook and a few months later they offered me a dream job as the Executive Chef and Instructor of OCCUPATION Next Step, a pilot program training homeless people to become Chefs.

I thought everything would work itself out even though I was still heavily addicted to cocaine. I was trying very hard to live the lies that I had dreamed up in my head and told to everyone. The foundation is false and so not one part of my life was real. Beverly and her staff, the volunteers, and many others involved with OSL believed in me and praised my talents, but inside I felt dead. Before I knew it the stress of the lies, the deceit and the drug use was beginning to destroy me. I was at the end of my rope and the noose was getting tighter and I was caught in my deception.

Beverly did not prosecute me nor persecute me. She loved me. It was harder than anything I ever had experienced; to be loved inside my shame. Beverly exercised “tough love” and I was fired. I had nowhere to go, no family to turn to because they weren’t speaking to me, so I finally decided to seek help.

On January 11th, 2007, I went into treatment for my drug addiction. I moved into clean and sober housing and things began to change for me. After my treatment I only talked to Beverly a few times just to stay in touch and to let her know that I was doing O.K. She never made any judgments about my past but only loved me. For the first time in my life I realized what it felt like to have love and to love myself. The conversations that Beverly and I were having became more frequent, and finally I was able to go visit her at her home….whew! I thought it was going to be one of the hardest things I ever had to do but it turned out to be one of the best moments in my life.

I have been clean and sober now for more than 7 years. I now have my family back in my life and I have Beverly, Krista, and my OSL family back as well. In January of 2010 I signed a lease on my very first apartment ever! At 47 yrs old, I had never lived alone or had had anything I treasure to speak of. I now have a love for myself, my family and my OSL family and I was rehired as the kitchen manager for OSL in June 2010.

I now know the real meaning of honesty and compassion. I know that throughout our lives we meet people along the way for a reason. I never wanted to take the time to know why, but now I believe I do know why. Some people are just there and others you meet because they are there to guide and support you through the rough times. Then there are people like Beverly and the OSL organization that shows us how to truly love others even if they are outcast and undesirable. People can change when they are truly forgiven.

~ Chef Paul Nicolosi

Chef Paul was rehired in June of 2010, and has been an affirmation that love can heal even the most damaged heart. It takes courage and integrity to seek help. It takes determination to change a lifetime of behavior challenges one day at a time. It takes true humility to ask for forgiveness. Chef Paul plays a leadership role in our organization as a member of our kitchen leadership team. He is loved and admired by our clients and volunteers, and his contributions to OSL are a tribute to his own personal excellence. He has vision, humor, and humility, participates in the training of our chef staff, and continues to create superb culinary delights.

Thank you, Chef Paul, for allowing us to share your story.

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For several years, OSL has a great relationship with Latino Heat. Our two organizations work together to help individuals learn that adequate nutrition is a right, not a privilege we earn.

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Since the City of Seattle and OSL collaboration began in 2007, OSL has had the responsibility to manage the Outdoor Meal Site (OMS). One quarter of the 460,000 meals we serve each year, are served at the OMS. The benefits of the OMS include a centralized location where those who are hungry can find a nutritionally dense, great tasting meal. These meals are served without prerequisite or judgment and are prepared in Health Department Certified kitchens, by people who have food safety in mind. Because of the extreme care taken with the preparation, content, and delivery of the meals served at the OMS contributes to well-being and overall health of the population being served. The OMS is located under the freeway, with the only public toilet open to un-housed individuals in Seattle, a place to wash hands and security present at every meal. This small spot accomplishes big things.

The OMS offers an alternative to meal providers who otherwise would serve in public parks or on the street. Serving in parks can create rodent and other public health issues, as well as creating un-welcoming environments for the general populace and merchants of Seattle. This is a good neighbor collaboration with local businesses, law enforcement, and the parks department.

On top of the 100,000 meals OSL serves at the OMS every year, logistically, our management duty to the OMS includes provider scheduling, cleaning, phone calls and staffing. We purchase equipment, make sure the porta-potty is clean, and stand up for those in need and the providers who serve those needs. One other important facet of the OMS management is a decade long attempt to engage providers who continue to serve in Seattle’s parks, creating a public nuisance and health detriment. We reconnoiter, educate, and offer our expertise and resources to encourage migration into the OMS. (If you would like to know about many of the complications facing outdoor meal providers, please see: http://serveseattlemealssafely.org/)

In August of 2012, I was charged to take my shift in City Hall and Occidental parks, awaiting the arrival of meal providers who had served in the park several weeks in a row. I had two one hour shifts, and here is my writing from that day:

Here I am, sitting in the sun in the middle of pioneer-square, surrounded by the people who I know we serve at the OMS, but there is no one serving food. There is evangelization. I have been sitting quietly so I don’t disturb a gentleman who is doing his best to sleep on this gorgeous Sunday morning. I was able to take a ride with the park rangers, and I have spoken with an un-housed gentleman about his amazing new pairs of socks which he got yesterday from a hygiene center. He was thrilled about them.

My purpose today may go unmet; I have not seen a single rogue meal provider, but still I did do good things, including an educational conversation with the park rangers. It seems as though they had no idea where and when we serve at the OMS. They don’t know they are to tell meal providers that there are other options and to contact OSL or these options.

I am degrading now, into aimless, stream of consciousness writing, spewing out my observations, in attempt to remember what to ask my far more experienced coworkers.

I don’t know what it means to sleep on cobblestone. What the protocol is if one finds abandon cardboard, which is used to cushion the body from the hardness or coldness of the ground and or the wetness of the grass…If someone walks away from it, is fair game? I could use that cardboard right about now. Would I have an even stronger hatred of seagulls were I to share a home with them? Or would some sort of respect be established? Do these trees provide any protection from the rain? Does one simply learn to sleep through the 2 am last call here, when all the bars close and hundreds of people just flow out into their bedrooms? Why is that guy peeing on the outside? Why, dear God, do we have so many houses without people and people without houses? What I do is so insignificant; however, it is so very important that I do it . . .

The writing ends there, but that was because I was busy for the rest of my shift.  A Bible Study youth group unloaded a BBQ and started cooking in the middle of Occidental Park. I approached them and was met with a bit of hesitancy at first, but once I explained who I was, they were much more receptive. The lead gentleman informed me that they only serve once every few months, and he seemed certain they would prefer to serve in the parks than at the OMS because that’s “where the people are”. I talked to him about him about their garbage and waste, the bathroom and hand washing stations. I explained that OSL could accommodate them in our kitchen, help provide meal ingredients, and provide security, if they would consider moving into the OMS. He took our flyer, and said he would take it to their leadership.

My objective for that moment was met, but not as expected. These weren’t the providers that were expected to show, but they were meal providers.

OSL is a multi-faceted organization. We fulfill our mission in variety of ways, through meals, through collaboration, through education, and through opportunities of service. We often don’t know, day to day, or year to year, how we can best serve our community. In the end we know, that in whatever form it takes, we are only serving love.

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According to data.seattle.gov, Seattle is home to approximately 100+ emergency food programs. The majority of these programs are Meal Programs, with 77 individual programs identified by the City. A smaller minority (36) are Food Banks.  Yet, when emergency food services are mentioned, food banks are what the majority of people think of, and food banks receive the majority of the cities resources. For every $1 the City of Seattle gives in support of meal programs, $5.90 is given to food banks.

At OSL, through our work as the Chair of the Meals Partnership Coalition for the past 16 years, we know that both Meal Programs and Food Banks are two crucial, but drastically different, components to the food safety net in our community. OSL works to educate the public about the differences, and to strive towards a more equitable distribution of resources for these two different groups.

Types of Services Provided

As individuals, we all need to secure food for ourselves and our families. When a housed individual is hungry, they are able to choose whether or not they go to the grocery store to stock their cupboards or to a restaurant if the need for a meal is immediate. If you have an empty kitchen and the skills to cook, , going to the grocery store is appropriate. If you are currently hungry, are away from home, do not know how to cook, are running short on time, or your kitchen is being remodeled, you will more than likely head to a restaurant to meet your meal needs.

Food banks and meal programs work in much the same way.

In Seattle, some Food Banks have taken the Grocery Store model. The food banks provide a grocery store setup where guests can  “shop” for the food that they need and want. Other food banks hand out food in pre-packaged bags to clients at predetermined times and locations throughout the week. However, the food that is distributed through food banks is in its raw form and requires a kitchen to prepare it into a meal.  This preparation requires cooking skills, storage space, and access to a kitchen where one can turn “ingredients” into “meals”.

Individuals that do not have a home, a kitchen to cook in, or basic cooking skills, often turn to meal programs to meet their food needs. Meals prepared at OSL are prepared by culinary professionals who understand the nuances of nutrition and great taste. Our meals are prepared in health department compliant commercial kitchens, which ensure that each meal is safe for public consumption. We hold our organization to a standard higher than most commercial kitchens, using non-biotoxic cleaning supplies, steam cleaning in addition to sanitization. Our kitchens are free of high allergen risk foods and materials, such as nuts, latex and shellfish. We work hard to insure that we are not creating any additional health stress for our guests, many of whom are already health compromised from life of poverty, whether housed or un-housed. Our meals are praised by our guests for their great taste, as well as for their nutritional density by community leaders.

OSL also works to educate those who are lacking basic cooking skills and reliant on donated commodities. A few years ago, our staff was approached by a client at the Outdoor Meal Site, praising the taste of the meal, a simple three bean chili, with cornbread and all the fixings. She asked our chefs how she could make it with the beans she received from the food bank, because no matter how she cooked them, she could never get them soft enough. This client did not know that she had to soak the beans first. We wonder out loud how many of the thousands pounds of dried beans that food banks distribute are going in the trash simply because people do not know how to prepare them. OSL offers cooking classes to low to no income individuals who want to know how to make fantastic meals out of donated food; after all, this is our excellence. Our chefs craft thousands of amazing meals each week out of state commodities, restaurant excess and donated goods. We never know what we are going to get, and the creativity that funnels around our kitchens is amazing!

In addition, Meal Program meals are made accessible by the ready delivery of meals throughout the region. Unlike Food Banks, which often require their guests to visit them, meal programs understand the transportation challenges our guests experience and thus have the ability to deliver hot meals across the region. OSL’s Food In Motion (FIM) serves as a model for these mobile meal programs. Covering a network from Lake City to Renton, from West Seattle to the Redmond, FIM make daily deliveries of nutritionally dense meals to many partner programs who serve our food insecure neighbors.

Conclusion

As food insecurity throughout the nation and our region grows, the ability of Emergency Food Providers to meet those needs must also grow. While Food Banks provide food services to a great number of people, it is imperative to remember that Meal Programs provide a different, but equally important, service to the food insecure and hungry in our community. Many of our guests at OSL do not have access to safe cooking facilities, nor do they have the training to prepare nutritionally dense meals. Meals programs, like OSL, make immediate access to food possible for our neighbors.

We encourage you to help OSL provide adequate representation and access to the resources that meal programs need in order reach more of our community members. Together, we can ensure everyone in our region has access to nutritionally dense meals.

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The annual Only Serving Love luncheon has come and gone for another year. Our amazing speaker, Gloria Burgess (http://www.gloriaburgess.com/), stunned the audience into silence and the emotion behind the mission was palpable in the room.

For those who were not able to attend, we would like to take a moment to share with you the OSL History documentary shared at the event. This video was a labor of love by our Founding Executive Director, former Board member and long time supporter, Ken Wright, and Robbie Cribbs of Sound Trap Studio.

Enjoy.

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I work inside of poverty. My job is to make sure that those who the public sees as faceless and nameless individuals are not without representation, and of course, not without meals. I walk into City Hall and Council Chambers with the strongest of intentions, but I also acknowledge the internal battle that happens every time I am stopped at an intersection next to someone holding a sign asking for help. I smile, I nod, I make sure they know that I see them. I pacify myself by knowing that every day, I AM working to insure this person has access to a meal, but I always wonder: how does THAT PERSON know that I am not just nodding and smiling at them and going on my merry way like all of the other thousands of drivers that have passed them that day. How am I serving them by not imparting that knowledge to them, and how selfish am I to want to justify myself to that person, and for what reason? Forgiveness? Acceptance? Camaraderie?

OSL received passive notice last week that the Outdoor Meal Sites location would be needed as a staging area for repairs on I-5 on the weekends for the next 9-17 weeks. No one called us, no one has attempted to work with us to figure out where the 15 meal providers whom this effects are going to serve. This communication was lost in the nebulous “who owns this” “who manages this” “who is supposed to call who” land of bureaucracy. In fact, it was OSL staff who noticed an engineer examining a wall during a meal who had to step forward and ask “What can I help you with?” who got this conversation started. A conversation that probably could have started months ago. Maybe even years.

But the fact is, we all have our jobs. We all smile as we are stopped at the intersection, fighting the internal battle of how we are making any positive change for the PERSON holding a sign and asking for help. The engineer, the scheduler, WSDOT staff, SDOT planners, we all have spent our commute looking through our rain covered windows, reading those signs. It is possible that one of them, or even all of them, wondered as they sat, waiting for the light to change, how the work they planned would effect that person. Or perhaps they all just filed them away as another nameless, faceless person.

You can be sure that the traffic has been planned; the signs have been posted for those who society allows to have a face and a name. If you own a car, you probably have a better idea of how this is going to affect your life than those who rely on this location to meet their basic needs. Because of this construction, the place that this nameless faceless person receives a meal, three times a day, seven days a week, is going to be gone. Was anyone planning on letting us know? Does the ripple effect of each of our actions not apply to those who are doing them as part of their government job? And for OSL, and the 15 other meals provider effected, where are we to go? Were we to just show up a work to find the construction equipment covering our workspace, and just figure it out?

We will. We always do.

The way we do may not be very popular, and it is sure to get a lot more attention. It’s possible that some providers will walk down to City Parks, effecting Parks & Rec, and some providers will just go home, leaving the hundreds of hungry people waiting in line to scramble for their meals. Those who cannot pass a breathalyzer, or refuse to be evangelized in order to receive a meal at the closest providers, may simply go hungry.  Perhaps we should just implement a furlough on hunger over the weekends for the next few months. I mean, it really isn’t true that people need to eat EVERYDAY, is it?

On my commute home today, I will pass by the Outdoor Meal Site, and I will smile at the man holding a sign, asking for help. I will know in my heart that I AM attempting to make a positive impact on his life, but at the same time, I cannot tell him where he is going to get his meal on Saturday.

~Kim Jones, Development Director

Update 2/19/14

After many phone calls and questions, OSL was able to work with WSDOT and their crew, and together, we were able to find a resolution to the matter that does not include closing down the Outdoor Meal Site. We are grateful to those who, once aware, walked hand in hand with us to work towards a solution for this matter for our most vulnerable community members

The sentiment and questions posed by the original post remain:
At OSL, it is part of our mission to advocate with and on behalf of those who cannot leverage the power to impact policy. Where is the line between ones “job” and ones duty as a member of the great community? When do we begin to expect that every person is responsible for thinking of how their tasks at work are going to ripple through out the entire pond? This is not an change that not only requires buy in by each individual, but a shift in cultural consciousness.

I have been in this relationship for 18 years. It started out with such a simple date; we put on our best and had lunch together. Sure, this lunch required me slaving in the kitchen and scrubbing dishes, and I even cut my finger while slicing a bagel, but I remember it with such fondness all these years later.

I was just a high schooler the first time I volunteered, and by the time I was 19, OSL and I were in a relationship. I worked side by side with Beverly, assisting her in whatever administrative work was needed: running errands, addressing envelopes, crafting annual reports, and filing away mountains of paper. The longer I was around OSL, the more I saw all the things that made this organization REAL. I began to understand, and really appreciate all of the substance that it holds beyond the pretty pictures on the brochures.

After leaving the staff to pursue my own business, I joined the Board of Directors, then became a Business Partner. Though the strength of our connection ebbed and flowed, all along the way, the relationship was still growing. I have sung on stage with Beverly in OSL Benaroya concerts, I have sold tickets to cruises, and procured A LOT of auction items. When I came back on full time staff two years ago, it was much like moving in with someone. Suddenly all of the romance is complicated with realities like filing reports (dirty socks), and grant close outs (bad snoring).

Like any good partner, I take these little things with a grain of salt, and practice gratitude every day. If I ever am feeling a little disconnected, or bogged down in the mundane land of a thousand nonprofit details, I simply walk into the kitchens. The laughing Chefs, the eager volunteers, and the smells of the wonderfully nutritious meals in the ovens, are sure to remind me that it really does take every member of this team to make this happen. I am blessed to be a member of that team. If I ever lose sight of the mission, I just call my spot in the service line at the Outdoor Meal Site, so that I can borrow a bit of the gratitude from our clients for a moment, who share it so openly, with wide smiles and sincere hearts. It’s in those moments, we all forget the drains that need cleaning, and oil that needs changing, or the paperwork that needs tackling.

I enjoy sharing the story of OSL, and meeting those that have not had the opportunity to meet that side of the organization yet. Part of me knows that I can talk until I am blue in the face as to why I LOVE OSL, but it won’t mean anything until someone actually experiences it.

OSL and I are going on a date soon, you know, to keep the romance alive. I am going to get all dressed up, and be part of the team that arranges the million-and-a-half details needed to make the date go off superbly. We are going ignore the dishes, and the reports due next week, and we are just going to sit down and focus on our dreams, and all of the amazing things that we can accomplish.

Together.

I invite you to come on date with OSL, and me, and a few hundred of our closest friends. We will put on our best, serve you, tell you how our endearing pieces fit together, and show you all of the pretty brochure-worthy pictures. We are going to fill the room with music, and invite you to be a part of the story as well.

And who knows? This might lead to something: first we will take you on a date, and maybe, down the road, you will decide that you want to move in too. There’s plenty of room at the table.

            ~   Kim Jones, Development Director & OSL Supporter since 1995

Please join us for our annual Luncheon on March 4^th at St. Demetrios Hall.

Tickets and more information:

info@oslserves.org 

206.922.2078

From the OSL Archieves:

Kimi serving, 2000-2001

Cirque de Soliel, 2005

Benaroya, 2007

With Mayor, 2013

The city is crazy with 12^th man fever, and so are we. Everywhere you go in Seattle, you’ll see blue and white 12 flags and Seattleites wearing 12 Fan Jerseys; everyone in Seattle seems to be embracing the Seahawks spirit. But did you know that the 12^th man’s origins go much deeper than being the loudest fans in nation? The 12^th man was quite literally the spectator that was ready when called, to support his favorite team, at any cost.

One of the earliest usages of the “12^th man” came on January 2^nd, 1922, when Texas A & M played Centre College, then a national powerhouse in college football. Arriving as underdogs, the Texas A & M squad played everyman on their roster until they were depleted. In need of another player, in case of injury, the coach turned to the fans for support. E. King Gill, an ardent supporter, stepped up to become the “12^th Man”. Though Gill ended up not playing in the game, his willingness to step up and support helped Texas A & M win, against the odds.

Just like Gill, the fans of the Seattle Seahawks are infamous for the way their support changes the dynamic of the game. The 12^th men of the Seahawks aren’t only spectators; they’re people who shift the momentum of the game. The 12^th man is so effective that on November 27^th, 2005, the Seahawk’s head coach dedicated the game ball to the 12^th man. In this year’s drive to the Super Bowl, the vocal support that the 12^th man makes has been associated with the Seahawk’s success. The 12^th man is so distracting for the other team that one opponent stated that in the Clink “You can barely hear yourself think.”

Founded by Beverly Graham, OSL heeded the call to become the 12^th Man for Seattle’s hungry in 1989. Our first meals were served at Occidental Park, in Seattle’s Pioneer Square neighborhood. Since then, our area of operations has expanded to include meal service throughout much of Seattle and parts of the greater Puget Sound region. Through our Food in Motion Program, we provide nutritional support to thousands of people, from Lake City to Renton and West Seattle to the Eastside. From our original epicenter in the Pioneer Square neighborhoods, OSL works to shake up hunger and shift the needle towards food security and stability for every Seattlelite, every day.

Throughout history, the 12^th man has truly played a pivotal role shaping the outcome of games and standing for their fellow man. That’s why this week; OSL is calling you to join our team against hunger.  Just as the 12^th man stands behind the Seahawks, we need you to stand behind the OSL team, which goes head to head with poverty every day.   Until Midnight on Monday February 3^rd, OSL is looking to the 12^thMan to Blitz hunger and provide thousands of more meals to more of our hungry neighbors. Our goal of $12,000 will ensure that thousands of more meals will reach those who are challenged with hunger in our community.

So how can you be a 12th man Against Hunger?

• Pledge today at http://www.razoo.com/story/12th-Man-Against-Hunger
• Collect donations at your Superbowl party
• Send your pictures to info@oslserves.org showing off your 12th man spirit.

OSL crafted more than 426,000 meals for the food insecure in the greater Seattle area last year, and has served more than 3.9 million meals since we were founded nearly 25 years ago. The City has been brought to life with Seahawks spirit; lets help save the lives of those living in our community struggling with hunger every day.

Don’t just be a fan, be the 12^th Man.