Though the cathedral’s doors are closed to the public, and with volunteering opportunities greatly impacted by the crisis, our connections to the outside world remain strong and vibrant. With dedicated coordination and creative problem solving, Dinner with Grace continues in service to our friends at The Crosby and The Mentone during this challenging time of social distancing.
Dinner with Grace builds community, engenders empathy and combats loneliness. In non-Covid times, this is done through volunteer-prepared healthy meals shared with individuals transitioning out of homelessness.
We alternate serving dinner at two locations: the Mentone Hotel at 387 Ellis St and the Crosby Hotel at 516 O’Farrell St, both located in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco, within a mile of the cathedral.
While we can’t gather to cook or serve and visit with the residents of the Mentone and Crosby hotels, we have been able to provide them with tangible reminders of our concern and support. We are continuing to work with a socially conscious caterer to prepare and deliver individually boxed meals to each SRO on a modified schedule. At Christmas we provided a generous Starbucks gift card and a box of caterer-baked cookies to Mentone residents and a full-on festive holiday meal from Boston Market for the Crosby. A small group of volunteers has gotten together on Zoom for catch-up chats a few times. We can’t wait to get back to the kitchen again! Come join us when we resume.
Please contact Nicole Stahl at dinnerwithgrace@gracecathedral.org or call Tracee Zyla, Program Coordinator, at 415-749-6351 for more information.
Check out this great feature from KQED’s California Report around Thanksgiving 2013: Dinner with Grace and our blog posts which include sample menus and explain the process of putting together the dinners.