The old man takes out his harmonica, wets his lips and begins his poem. It’s about mountains.
After the first stanza he plays a short tune. A few patrons of the restaurant turn to find the source of the music, smile and continue eating.
After the fifth stanza he plays the last tune.
His green eyes gleaming, John Suta, 82, says “That’s how you write a song,” and returns his harmonica to its case. “Isn’t that wonderful.”
The Dining Room, where this lesson in songwriting took place, is one of many sites in Eugene and Springfield that serve free meals to low-income members of the community. Powering these sites is a small but dedicated group of people, mostly volunteers, who prepare and dish out more than 200 meals daily.
Opened a year ago by FOOD for Lane County, the Dining Room currently serves families and seniors. The restaurant — with its green carpet, warm orange painted walls, wood paneling and cushioned booths — has a comfortable feel.
Avoiding the coldness of an institutional soup kitchen was one of the goals the designers had for the facility.
“The restaurant is a wonderful place to have a site,” said Sadie Sponsler, the Dining Room’s coordinator. “It’s warm and has some ambience; we sometimes have someone come play music.”
Fifty to 70 people eat at The Dining Room every night. Most are regulars.
“Out of the 90 people in the computer, I know about 85 of them by name,” Sponsler said.
Ronnie, who asked to have her last name withheld, brings her three children with her to the Dining Room nearly every evening.
“It’s a place to sit down and talk to your kids after school,” she said. “It has a family atmosphere.”
The need for places like The Dining Room has increased because of the state’s many job losses, Sponsler said.
For Suta, the Dining Room is a blessing.
“It’s wonderful to have a place like this,” he said. “It’s getting harder to get food together; that’s just the way it is.”
Ronnie’s family echoed that thought. Since being evicted from their home, the restaurant has become vital to them.
They are currently living in a friend’s RV, but the temporary home has no running water, making meals hard to prepare.
“The kids can eat breakfast and lunch at school, but we have to come here for dinner,” Ronnie said.
Meals at the Dining Room are substantial. A bowl of soup and a hunk of bread is not on the menu. Chicken, rice, green beans, salad, tofu, stir fry, chimichangas and a wide variety of desserts make up one night’s meal. The next day’s meal could be just as eclectic or simple depending on what foods are available.
“We have something for the kids, something for the veggies, and something for the meaties every night,” volunteer cook Barbara Nevler said.
Tracy Joscelyn is the site’s head cook and she decides the night’s meal by what is stocked in FOOD for Lane County’s coolers.
“I cook up enough meals to have just enough … with no leftovers,” Joscelyn said. “While it seems abundant in the FFLC warehouse, there is not enough food in this county to feed everyone that is hungry.”
FOOD for Lane County is an organization that collects food and then distributes it to relief agencies in the area. The University is one of the organization’s biggest contributors, Sponsler said.
The Dining Room and its sister site at the Salvation Army in Springfield are open every weekday except Thursday. On Thursdays and weekends other agencies serve meals.
Crossfire World Outreach Ministries’ “Field of Dreams” program serves lunch on Saturdays under the Washington/Jefferson bridge.
Marlene Hinthorne, the project’s pastor, said that the community meal was started by a woman who had been homeless.
“She made the statement, ‘I just want to feed the homeless, because I know what it’s like to be hungry. Even if I have to take beans and rice to the park and start feeding people that’s what I want to do,’” Hinthorne said.
Field of Dreams has served more than 150 meals almost every weekend for the last three years. Everyone who works at the site is a volunteer.
Many sites for food relief in the Eugene/Springfield area are run by churches like Crossfire.
Church groups, especially youth groups, provide many volunteers, but their assistance is intermittent.
“FFLC always can use volunteers,” Sponsler said.
At the Dining Room, volunteers can prepare the meals in the afternoon or serve the meals at night.
Lon Nevler said he gives time to the community that once helped him, and added that he has fun doing the work.
“I feel great satisfaction from my community involvement,” Nevler said. “People feel good when they volunteer.”
The effort put forth by volunteers has a positive impact on the community, Hinthorne said.
“We don’t expect to change the community overnight, but we do expect to make a difference as time goes on,” Hinthorne said. “There is a lot of good going on in our community.”
After placing the harmonica in his pocket, Suta takes a long drink of his tea and looks around the room. He watches the people eat as a volunteer clears dishes from a table, asking how the meal was.
He smiles.
“People need people,” he says. “People are fantastic and you can see the good in them.”