Tuesday, February 18, 2025

Community dinners foster connection in the Upper Valley

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UPPER VALLEY – Community dinners, hosted monthly at Leavenworth Community United Methodist Church (UMC) and weekly at Cashmere Community Church, bring neighbors together over a shared meal, fostering connection and a sense of community.

“It’s not [about the church]. It's about getting people from the community to be part of it, whether people are hungry or whether they just need the social aspect,” said Judy Weaver, a volunteer at the Leavenworth community dinner.

According to Weaver, Leavenworth Community UMC has historically done community dinners, but hadn’t in the last 12 years of her attendance. The community dinners returned to the church about a year and a half ago, thanks to the initiative of the suppers’ two volunteer cooks, Angela Kelley and Myrene McFarland.

“The pastor asked us what we thought our mission should be in the community…And so we went around and we all wrote up what we said, and I said, ‘Feed people.’ And so that's what we're trying to do, and not just with food, with community,” said McFarland.

The made-from-scratch dinners, such as lasagna or chicken curry, often include donations from local businesses, like staples from Dan’s Food Market, or strudel from Obertal Inn. They attract about 60 guests each time, ranging from senior citizens to young families, and even Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) hikers in the summer.

“[The hikers] were very appreciative of being able to just be able to sit down and be comfortable and not have to worry about anything…And all the stories you hear are just amazing,” said Weaver.

In the future, Leavenworth Community UMC envisions creating a host rotation similar to that of Cashmere Community Church’s community dinners, which shares the hosting responsibilities amongst local community groups.

The dinners, which occur on a more frequent weekly basis, remain at the same time and location, keeping a reliable and consistent schedule for community members while also offering a kitchen and dining area for different groups to host.

“It's really aimed toward bringing all sorts of different sorts of folks and really weaving our community together, because we can withstand anything, as long as we are all connected and caring for each other,” said June Darling, who is a volunteer greeter at the Cashmere dinners.

One week, the Cashmere Community Church will serve a chicken pozole soup. Another week, the Kiwanis Club Wacoka of Cashmere will serve chicken tostadas. The rotation involves a network of different hosts, ranging from churches, to organizations, businesses, and community members.

Cashmere’s community dinners started around 2011 with a hiatus in 2019, said Darling. After losing some of the original organizers to life circumstances, the church reintroduced the dinners by coordinating help with other groups, such as Sure to Rise Bakery and the Cashmere Seventh-day Adventist Church. The participating groups, with Seventh-day Adventist’s Kathryn Finlayson at the helm, helped recruit more, allowing the community dinners to be sustainably continued each week. 

“Now, I mean, it's just a well oiled machine. We don't like to use the word ‘machine,’ because the major part of this meal really isn't the food for us. It's the opportunity for people to get around the table. People that normally you might see on the street, but you're not going to see in one place. You're not going to see the mayor, you're not going to see a homeless fellow, you're not going to see your neighbor…And we really try to get people to sit at the table and say, ‘Have you met?’” said Darling.

Over the years, Darling has witnessed young and old generations connect, parents enjoy a meal while their kids are collectively supervised, and new residents from countries on opposite sides of the world become friends over the meal.

“I think we feel it's a job well done when we just see people that wouldn't come in contact perhaps normally, getting to just smile and meet each other and enjoy being a community,” said Darling.

The Cashmere community dinners are from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. (or until food runs out) every Thursday evening at 213 South Division Street. The Leavenworth Community Dinners are every third Tuesday of the month from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at 418 Evans Street. Leavenworth groups looking to sponsor and prepare a community dinner should contact Leavenworth Community UMC: 509-548-5619.

Taylor Caldwell: 509-433-7276 or taylor@ward.media

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