Volunteers offer food and friendship

MARYSVILLE — Ora Kopp, 52, has been homeless for 19 years, living under bridges.

He’s had pneumonia and suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, he said.

Three days a week, though, thanks to a group of volunteers in Marysville, Kopp knows he can get a hot lunch.

For three years, a loose-knit group of 15 to 25 volunteers have prepared and served the lunches to the homeless and others down on their luck.

The food has been served in a parking lot, in parks and now at the Evergreen Unitarian Universalist Fellowship at Fourth Street and Columbia Avenue.

The volunteers also collect blankets, socks, jeans, tennis shoes and other items for the people who come to the lunches — and offer friendship as well.

“It’s really cool what they’re doing here,” said Kopp, who attended Wednesday’s lunch of pasta, salad, muffins, apples and canned peaches.

The endeavor was started by Kay Cannell, who began serving food out of her vehicle to people she met in the parking lot of the Quil Ceda Creek Casino, said Teri Branan, one of the organizers.

The group then moved to Comeford Park in downtown Marysville, then to Ebey Waterfront Park and, a couple of months ago, to the church.

Cannell has been ill recently and others have picked up the slack. The lunches are served at 1 p.m. every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

“We’re just people who cared,” Branan said.

The Unitarian church recently offered basement space to the group on a trial basis. So far, it’s gone well, volunteers say.

“Social activism is really a core of our religion,” said Teresa Rugg, chairwoman of the church’s social activism committee.

The number who attended the lunches started off small, around seven or eight, but has grown to a crowd that often reaches 35 people, Branan said. It’s mostly men; three women are semi-regulars, she said.

The economic downtown has added to the numbers.

Rick Gunia, 47, lost his job at a local machine shop a little over a year ago.

He’s doing handyman work in exchange for a place to stay, but needs help to make ends meet.

“If it weren’t for this and the food bank...” he said, tailing off. “There’s a lot of us out there.”

“This is great, here,” said Randy Deatherage, 50, as he skewered some rigatoni tubes with a plastic fork. He, too, was laid off from his job as a custodian at Providence Regional Medical Center Everett about a year ago.

“It’s hard times. People are losing their jobs,” he said.

Over most of the three years the volunteers have paid for the food and other items out of their own pockets, Branan said.

Now, donations are increasing. Branan’s own church, Mountain View Presbyterian, now accepts donations to the lunches under its nonprofit umbrella. Teachers at Marysville-Pilchuck High School are giving to the lunches through the United Way.

One person faithfully gives $30 every month, Branan said. Another donates apples from their tree.

Serving homeless men is intimidating to some, and volunteers don’t always stick around, Branan said. She herself had doubts when she started a year ago.

“I didn’t want to get out of the car,” she said. Then, after she spent time with the men, she got to know and befriend them.

“Most of us are one or two paychecks away from losing our homes,” she said. “We are all just people.”



Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439; sheets@heraldnet.com.