Agency: Blanchet House

Description:

Monday through Saturday, Blanchet House serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner to the hungry, helped by the men who live in Blanchet’s transitional housing and volunteers like you! Come out and help with serving, busing, and the food assembly line for the 700-800 meals we serve each day.

Volunteers will arrive half an hour before the meal begins to get oriented to Blanchet House and divvy up tasks. Meal service lasts approximately one hour, after which volunteers are welcome to stay and eat with the rest of the meal crew and the 29 men who live and work at Blanchet House.

Blanchet House of Hospitality, founded in 1952, offers to the poor: free meals, beds, jobs, and HOPE. In recent years it has been joined by two more properties to become a multi-unit complex of charitable endeavors, including the Blanchet Farm in Carlton, OR, which serves as a working farm and recovery site for men. For all 56 years of its existence, the Blanchet programs have been managed by the men who originally came for a meal and a place to stay. They live in the House and perform all of the daily tasks involved in its operation, thus contributing to their own self-esteem and developing a community spirit. Since its inception, the House has served over seventeen million hot meals, provided over one million night's lodging, distributed over 800,000 items of clothing, and filled over 120,000 temporary jobs.

This project is great for families with kids ages 12 and older. Youth under 12 must attend with a parent/adult chaperone.

Impact Areas: Homelessness/Hunger, Homelessness/Hunger: Meal Service, Other

Interests: The interests recommended for this project are:
Hunger, Community Enrichment, Homelessness

Skills: The skills helpful for participation in this project are:
Cooking & Meal Planning, Working with People