Neighbors Helping Neighbors

On March 20th, cooks and servers from delivered a hot and fresh meal for 70 clients staying at the Arlington County Emergency Winter Shelter. It was not the first time they had done so – hopefully won’t be the last – but it was very special and a great gift for everyone. 

A-SPAN’s partnership with Lyon Hall began with a tweet. In late fall of 2010, my friend Melanie Spring (@Sisarina) was chatting with JC Gibbs (@JCGibbsDC) in an office in Bethesda -- about social media, naturally. She tweeted out to see if anyone from Arlington wanted to connect and share with JC about good things to do. I responded from my personal account and said I’d love to talk with her about what we do at A-SPAN. The next day JC and I met for coffee. Over the course of an hour and a half, I told her about all of our programs. She asked great questions and then started making several suggestions about what she wanted to do to get involved. I didn’t know it ‘til then but she was a cook at Lyon Hall, which had only opened six months before, and they were looking for ways to connect the restaurant more with the community.

I gave JC a tour of the shelter and what we offer our clients. At the shelter, we normally contract for dinner with DC Central Kitchen and the food is always great. But JC suggested that we meet with Chef Andy Bennett to see about them preparing a special dinner for our clients at the shelter. Chef Andy was ready to sign on after only a few minutes of discussion and then we just had to work out some simple logistics. Because the shelter has no cooking facilities, they would have to prepare dinner at Lyon Hall and deliver while still hot. Cooking for almost 80 people, that was a lot of hot food to load up and deliver, but they did and it was fantastic. Since then, they have catered dinner at the shelter at least once a month when it is open. They work with local farmers to get locally grown and in-season fruits and vegetables. They cut down on salt and fats to make sure the food they provide is as healthy as possible. And it is always delicious. We love working with them.

The generosity of Lyon Hall caused us to reach out to other restaurants in the area to provide the occasional special meal. Last year, Bertucci’s of Clarendon hosted a pizza night at the shelter, and Wednesday night  . Our neighbor in Courthouse, , regularly donates pastries and provided breakfast for volunteers last October during the 100 Homes Registry Week. When the shelter closed last year, a local provided coffee, bagels, and pastries for our clients’ last breakfast indoors for a while.

The shelter closes for the season on March 31st but one of our goals for the next shelter season is to recruit 7 local restaurants to host dinner at the shelter each night one week to create a “Restaurant Week” for our neighbors who can’t afford to dine out. When you spend a day or days hungry, a hot meal is a special gift. When it’s been made lovingly by your neighbor, it means that much more. Never underestimate the power of food and a friendly face.

And to my friends who still don’t get it: Never underestimate the usefulness of social media and the follow-up coffee!