Feeding their friends again

A Pullman restaurant is once again giving away free meals to the community thanks to the help of a local nonprofit.

On Tuesday, Oak on Main restarted its weekly Feeding Our Friends event where they allow anyone in the community to come and pick up free food every Tuesday. This week, pork chops, green beans and mashed potatoes were on the menu.

The event started shortly after the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 with the help of donations from the community.

Owner Frank Maryott said those donations began to decrease in 2021, likely because it appeared the pandemic was subsiding. The restaurant ended Feeding Our Friends in November.

“We just couldn’t keep it going and fund it all ourselves,” he said.

The Community Action Center then stepped in and offered to use grant money to bring the event back.

Georgia Beck, the interim housing coordinator for the CAC, said the nonprofit saw the free meal event as an opportunity to reach out to the homeless community.

Using money from the federal Emergency Services Grant, the CAC is providing $250 a week for the food and CAC employees will volunteer each week to distribute the meals. Beck said it can spend the funds through September.

Beck said the food is available to anyone in the community, but the CAC is hoping it will allow them to connect with those who are homeless and let them know about the housing resources the CAC can provide. For example, the CAC can use that federal grant money to provide rent, housing and furniture to those who need it.

“This is a great opportunity,” she said.

Beck said homelessness has increased exponentially recently, and people do not realize CAC has resources available to them.

“It is so hard for people to ask for help,” she said.

Maryott expressed gratitude for this partnership. He said the CAC understands who needs these meals and their assistance allows the restaurant to bring back a program that many in the community wanted to see again.

“It has been something that we enjoy doing for as long as we could do it,” he said.

Kuipers can be reached at akuipers@dnews.com.