FareStart Seattle

 A group from our church took a whirlwind trip up to Seattle this week.  We are in the process of starting a new program at our church.  We would like to provide job skills to people who are unemployed, or under employed.  We wanted to see how FareStart does it in Seattle.  The photograph above is of their beautiful restaurant.  As you walk down the street there are three kitchens with windows to the sidewalk.  It's an amazing operation.  FareStart is a culinary job training and placement program for homeless and disadvantaged individuals.  In addition to their restaurant where they serve lunch Monday through Friday, they also create over 3,000 meals a day for various programs in the area.

 We got a tour of the whole facility and it is amazing.  The restaurant and three kitchens take up most of the first floor.  Then in the basement is the production kitchen where they turn out thousands of meals each day.  I have blurred out the faces of the people working on the line for their privacy.  This is the place where you perfect your knife skills.  Each table was working to chop up one particular kind of vegetable, eventually filling a huge plastic tub.
On the second floor they have cool balcony seating that overlooks the restaurant, and some meeting and office space.  The third floor is all offices and classrooms.  There was an AA group getting ready to meet as we walked through.  The people in the program have individual help in many life skills areas.  It's an impressive program.

FareStart has also started up a consultation arm called Catalyst Kitchens.  This organization works with folks like us who are trying to start up such a program.  We will be working with them in the near future.  But first we have to raise some money.  We would like to invite you to join us at the Venue (1629 NE Baker St. in McMinnville) at 7:00 pm on Sunday, February 17, 2013.  Our professional chef, Pete Rahier (pictured above making pizza!) will be making desserts for the evening, and we will also be serving wine.  

The Occasional Quartet will be providing some entertainment along with the Humlie Family.  The Humlies are an amazingly talented musical family and we are thrilled to have them for this event.  I hope you'll be able to join us.  Everything we raise is going to be matched at 50 cents on the dollar by Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.