Financial Support for SPiN Cafe's Food Program

In 2022 SPiN CAFE was awarded with an ARPA grant (American Rescue Plan Act) from Island County to bring back our hot meal program. That blessing was an enormous success in that we now provide hot, nutritious dinners 3 to 4 afternoons a week to our homeless and at-risk neighbors. We were, and still are, cooking these meals at Whidbey Presbyterian Church. In July of that same year, SPiN Cafe was awarded a Resiliency Grant from WADA (Washington State Department of Agriculture) to support our meal program. While this overlapped with the ARPA grant, as executive director, I was able to use these funds for food purchases through June of 2023.

Again, I applied for the Resiliency Grant for 2023-24, but was turned down.  I am disappointed as you can imagine.  Our feeding program has become a cornerstone of the services we provide to our homeless and very low-income community.  It is one of the best ways that we can serve our guests and build a relationship with each individual.  From there we can address their needs, get them the care and assistance they deserve to end their journey of homelessness.

Here are some statistics:  SPiN CAFE served 7073 folks in the first 9 months of the year with an average of 28 guests per day.  Recently our daily count has been in the 40’s.  We served 7002 lunches in partnership with local churches and 3558 dinners with an average dinner count of 28, again with our counts increasing in recent months.  (We also provide simple breakfast foods like cereal and oatmeal in the mornings.)  We are seeing more and more homeless folks and are doing everything we can to provide these neighbors with resources and assistance in finding housing, counseling, substance abuse treatment and other important support.

A board member and I met with Representative Clyde Shavers to find funding for food and supplies this past week.  Clyde was very sympathetic and supportive of the needs of the community we serve but, because of the legislature scheduling and workings, will not be able to help us acquire funding until the spring of 2024.  There are other grants that we are applying for but that doesn’t help our immediate need for funding.

We are asking our supporters to consider pledging a monetary donation to SPiN Cafe to support our food program for the next 6 months.  If 15 folks donate $200.00 a month for 6 months, we can keep our services at our current level. We would be happy with 30 pledges of $100.00 a month or 60 pledges of $50.00 a month. Our costs for food and supplies are around $3000.00 per month, and still rising. We know this is a big ask as inflation is stretching everyone’s budgets.

Please consider gifting SPiN Cafe monetary support and visit our website Serving People in Need - SPiN Cafe (spincafeoh.org).  If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at spincafeoh@gmail.com or 360-929-0281.

 Thank you,
Michele Hines, Executive Director