David's Kitchen

I have nothing special to report. Joy of joys!

We persist week to week, making about 350 burritos for soup kitchens, day centers, and authorized homeless encampments. A nice group of regular volunteers has coalesced around the project. People like our burritos.

That’s the whole story, and I’m happy to tell it!

Of course, I have schemes to expand both our production and our reach. I would love to produce 500 burritos per week, and add another day center to our client roster. I would love to engage the volunteers who have offered to drive burritos to additional locations. I believe that will happen, in time.

For the moment, we are proud of what we are doing! See the Burrito Scoreboard for an accounting of how many burritos we make and where they go each week. Join our Facebook Group for photos and up-to-date reports about what we’re doing.

See you soon!

–David B.

Just a quick note about logistics:

I had wanted to bump up production to 500 burritos for the week of Feb. 2, but we’ll just be making the standard amount of around 350. Discretion is the better part of valor! To make 500 requires more ingredients, more refrigeration, more cooking, and more deliveries. All of that can be handled, but it takes time to put the pieces in place.

Wonderfully, three volunteers have already stepped forward to handle the additional deliveries: Henry will go to Whittier Heights Tiny House Village on 15th Ave. in Ballard, Gail will go to Licton Springs Tiny House Village on Aurora, and Sally will take a week’s supply of burritos to God’s Little Acre, a day center in Lake City run by the Seattle Mennonite Church. This is really marvelous, and marks a big step forward for our program!

I do have access to another full-size commercial refrigerator, so when the burritos are made, there is a place to put them. The beautiful new stove at the Greenwood Senior Center is capable of making all the necessary ingredients, but I need to recruit more regular help for the prep cooking on Thursday evenings (6-9 pm, email me if you’re interested).

And then there’s the ingredients. Buying ingredients for 350 burritos is already a major shopping trip, and to multiply that by 1.5 pushes it into a legitimately commercial-sized effort. I am thinking carefully about how to proceed in that direction, but it will take some days to figure out what’s up.

Thank you for your patience and support as we grow into being what we need to be!

–David B.

Bounce: Back to the Greenwood Senior Center

We are going back to the Greenwood Senior Center (GSC), and we intend to be there permanently. Beginning Saturday, January 26, the Burrito Party will be Saturdays, 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM, at the GSC, into the foreseeable future. Prep cooking will be on Thursday evenings, also at the GSC, from 6:30 – 9:00 PM.

Why? What about all the reasons to move that I argued for in a previous post? The simple answer is that the stove at the GSC is much more powerful than the stove at St. Luke’s, and I need that power to cook an enormous quantity of beans. Also, the Phinney Neighborhood Association (which operates the Senior Center) has made it clear that our program is important to them, and they want to host us into the future. It was my mistake to precipitously make a move without a complete discussion!

Our relationship with St. Luke’s Edible Hope Kitchen has not changed. St. Luke’s is the most important client of Burritos Without Borders, and they will continue to receive the bulk of our production. Their breakfast program (serving 200 people Monday through Friday) is on the front line of emergency service to the homeless, they operate on a shoestring by virtue of the personal sacrifices of devoted volunteers, and they deserve our total support.

(NOTE: There is no Burrito Party, Saturday, January 19, because I must attend a medical procedure for a family member.)

Settle: How many burritos can we make?

We made 377 burritos on Saturday, January 12. Ten volunteers worked for less than an hour to produce this record number. Everyone agreed we could do more; it would even be possible to double our output!

But it’s not that simple. The Burrito Party itself – where burritos are assembled and put in trays – is the easiest part of the process! The hard part is cooking beans and rice in quantities that challenge even the mid-size commercial kitchen at the GSC. To double the output given the available time, person-power, stove capacity, and refrigeration is not at all an obvious proposition.

We will solve it! It is very clear that this project is supported by an expanding group of enthusiastic volunteers. People are ready to do this work, and it’s my job to get into their hands the beans, rice, cheese, and tortillas they require.

Also, the need is clear. If we were making (say, for example) 550 burritos per week, here’s how they could be distributed in North Seattle:

• St. Luke’s Edible Hope Kitchen: 250
• God’s Little Acre (a day center in Lake City, run by the Seattle Mennonite Church): 100
• Phinney Neighborhood Association Hot Meal Program: 50
• Nickelsville Northlake: 50
• Aurora Commons: 50
• Licton Springs Village: 25
• Whittier Heights Tiny House Village: 25.

My best crazy idea is to recruit a commercial kitchen already in operation – a restaurant, a grocery-store deli – to cook the beans on our behalf. Someone has to have a big kettle or other professional machine that could cook 20 gallons of beans without a strain! But could such activity fit into normal commercial operations without too much disruption? Unknown, at present, but soon to be investigated!

In the meantime, please join us for the next Burrito Party, Saturday, January 26, 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM, at the Greenwood Senior Center, 525 N 85th St. Please check out and join our Facebook Group for up-to-date notices. Thank you for your enthusiasm and support, and for your patience as this program takes form. See you soon!

–David B.

*** NOTICE: The decision to move has been changed! We are bouncing back to the Greenwood Senior Center, and settling in there. See this post for details.

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The pilot project at the Phinney Neighborhood Association (PNA) has been a tremendous success. We have gotten Burritos Without Borders up on its feet, we have seen its contours and its magnitude, and we have experienced the system operating successfully.

We have learned, however, that the focus of the project is somewhere other than the PNA. Specifically, most of the burritos we make – 250 out of 300 or more – are being delivered to a different meal-provider, the Edible Hope breakfast program at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Ballard. Edible Hope serves breakfast Monday through Friday to more than 200 homeless and poor people, using 50 of our burritos every day to supplement food cooked fresh in the kitchen.

THE BURRITO PARTY IS MOVING

I have concluded, in concert with the PNA and Edible Hope, that it makes more sense to produce the burritos where they are being eaten. Therefore, starting Saturday, January 5, the Burrito Party will be at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, 5710 22nd Ave NW, in Ballard, two blocks north of Market St. and across the street from the Ballard Commons Park. (There is parking behind the church, and many bus routes run on Market St.)

To work at the church will be more efficient, because we won’t need to transport burritos in a car. Further, it opens the possibility of using food-bank ingredients, because the burritos will be served where they are made (which the food bank requires). Also, it will be good to work near the people we are serving. My experience has been that close contact with the homeless and poor lends a vitality to the work of service; you get a sense of what’s at stake, and you can feel the contribution you are making.

THE LOCATION IS CHANGING, BUT THE OBJECTIVE IS THE SAME

I understand that this change may be difficult for some people to accommodate. In addition to the location, the time of day will be changing: The Burrito Party will be from 2-5 PM on Saturday afternoon, rather than in the morning. I apologize to those who will not be able to follow us! [Edit 1/9/19: The next Burrito Party (Jan. 12) will be 1:00-3:00 PM. We will soon settle on permanent hours and arrangements, but not quite yet!]

In the long run, however, I must try to find the way that will lead to a sustainable, successful project. The leaders at Edible Hope – Sara Bates, the project manager, and Robert Loomis, the head cook – are savvy, devoted activists. They understand exactly what Burritos Without Borders is about, and they are ready to welcome us. We share an objective: to make compassion real in the world by serving those who would otherwise be hungry and alone.

There are challenges ahead! It is not trivial to learn how to cook at this scale in a new kitchen. To work with a new partner requires a careful and respectful accommodation of procedures and organizational cultures. But in another way, it’s easy – our foundation is in love, so all will be well!

DETAILS, DETAILS

To recap:

• Beginning Saturday, January 5, the Burrito Party will be Saturday afternoons, 2:00-5:00 PM. [Edit 1/9/19; The next Burrito Party, January 12, is 1:00-3:00 PM.]
• Location: St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, 5710 22nd Ave NW, in Ballard, two blocks north of Market St., across from Ballard Commons Park.
• Enter the basement door on 22nd Ave. There is parking behind the church, to the east. Many buses run on Market St.
• To sign up, please respond “Going” to the Facebook event, or if you don’t do Facebook, please email me.

Thank you for your patience and perseverance as we make this exciting and necessary change. See you soon!

–David B.