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| My Brother's Table Today |
The core of the Table's operations is the service of a daily, free, hot, nutritious meal to anyone who wants one, but the mission has been expanded to provide advocacy and services to help the guests in many areas of their lives. On Tuesday nights there is a popular art therapy program during dinner. Meals are provided for people in a homeless day program and for detainees in the city jail.
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There is a free medical clinic on Tuesday nights to provide care for minor health problems and referrals, staffed by two nurses and a physician, all volunteers. A free, confidential HIV testing clinic is also offered. The Table provides a dinner shuttle outreach to assist guests with terminal or chronic illnesses who cannot come to the dining room for dinner. In order to be eligible for the dinner shuttle, individuals cannot be eligible for benefits from another agency. |
The Table is committed to providing mentoring and job skills training for one or two individuals at a time. Some may have never worked because of a physical or mental disability. Some have been out of the workforce for many years and have lived on welfare. Many have been guests at the Table and some still are. It is an opportunity for the trainees to be part of a collegial working environment and for the staff and volunteers to truly include the people the Table serves in their lives.
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| The Dinner Guests |
For many people My Brother's Table is the only place or only way they can receive the daily nutrition that they need. Many who come to the evening meal rely on the Table for all their nutritional needs. For others, the Table represents a way to stretch limited budgets, and without the Table they would receive inadequate nutrition.
Some guests are currently homeless, and many more have been homeless or are at risk of being homeless. Many guests have no cooking facilities in the rooms they rent in Lynn's old hotels and boarding houses. Some live in the city-run emergency shelter that is downstairs from the Table's dining room. There are families who have no money left after they have paid their rent. Elderly and lonely people come for company so they don't have to eat alone day after day. Most have some form of disability. Recently, there has been an increase in young adults, many of whom have probably "aged out" of foster care with few options for work, education, or permanent family.
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| Rules |
One constant over the years has been the philosophy of the Table. All who come to the Table are welcomed without question. The only rules are—no alcohol, no drugs; and no fighting, no arguing.
Apart from these, nothing is asked of the guests in order to allow people to be welcomed in dignity, no questions. No one who keeps the rules is turned away, no matter how often he or she comes.
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| Funding |
Founded in difficult economic times to be self-sustaining despite the ups and downs of the economy and politics, My Brother's Table is entirely funded by donations. The Table does not receive nor seek any federal, state, or city government aid. The Table is not a United Way affiliate. Instead funding comes from thousands of individual private donors as well as ongoing fundraising efforts. There are a few annual special events, and the staff writes grants to foundations and corporations. Several times a year, thousands of appeal mailings are stuffed, stamped, and sorted for bulk mailing entirely by volunteers. The Table pays only for printing and postage.
In addition to financial donations, My Brother's Table receives over $300,000 of donated food items annually. These items constitute most of each meal, and make up the bulk of our food budget. The Table could not operate as it does without the donation of food and supplies—these donations are essential. Food donations come from grocery stores, food banks, restaurants, canned food drives, individuals, and leftovers from catered events. At the holidays a call to the community for donated turkeys has resulted in over 500 donations within three days.
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| The Food |
A typical meal includes a serving of meat or other protein, a starch, cooked vegetables, fresh salad, dessert, and coffee, milk or fruit-flavored beverage. However, that does not adequately describe the often creative and very tasty meals that are prepared by the Table's Cook and Kitchen Manager. About eight meals a month are catered by a volunteer group.
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| Volunteers |
In order to serve guests in a caring environment, My Brother's Table utilizes a large volunteer corps—2,500 volunteers a year. The contribution of volunteer time is as essential to the Table's 365-day-per-year operation as are financial donations. Many of the Table's volunteers have been faithful for more than two decades. Almost all feel that their contributions are very important and make a difference in the lives of the guests as well as the ability of the Table to fulfill its mission. Some volunteers have an ongoing job at the Table and volunteer a day or more weekly to provide a specific service.
More than twenty years ago, the founders wrote: We volunteers have more to learn than to share. My Brother's Table will be a center for barriers to break down, for the poor to educate the rich, the elderly to teach the young, the powerless to humble the powerful…And, since we are caring for God's people, we will always get what we need.
Volunteer groups come every night to bring the meal, help prepare the meal, pay for the meal, or serve a meal prepared by the Table's cook. Churches, temples, civic organizations, corporations, clubs, schools, and family groups volunteer. Some groups serve monthly, one or more times a year. Individual volunteers perform a wide range of services including food preparation, meal service, cooking, office work, fundraising, driving to pick up donated food, medical services (there are two volunteer nurses and a volunteer physician), and many other special projects.
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