Serving the Homeless With a Touch of Class
Don’t even think about showing up without a reservation. And if you do, pray for a spare seat and a hostess in a good mood.
Because at the Bread & Roses Cafe in Venice, homeless guests follow the same rules of the road as their more fortunate counterparts at conventional restaurants down the street. After all, a reservation list helps Thomasine Howlett, the cafe’s chef and program coordinator at the St. Joseph Center’s Homeless Service Center, figure out how many meals to make. And signing up helps the center’s clients as well, Howlett says.
“It gives people a sense of responsibility, knowing that if they want to eat that day, they need to check in at the service center and get their name on the list,” she says.
At Bread & Roses, community volunteers wait on diners rather than serving them cafeteria-style. And the hunger relief agency with panache decorates the tables with flowers donated by Scentiments in Venice and pipes in classical music or jazz.
After the dishes are washed, the center helps displaced workers brush up on their skills in a Food Service Job Training Program. Now Bread & Roses is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a week of fund-raising activities, beginning Sept. 28. Volunteers are being sought to serve meals, training program graduates will have a class reunion, and homeless men and women will entertain during a talent night. For more information, call (310) 399-2352.
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Many moons ago, Spencer Tracy and Will Rogers did their male bonding over polo on the lush fields of what’s now the Will Rogers State Historic Park in Pacific Palisades. Now some of their descendants are banding together at a fund-raising polo event on Sept. 26 to benefit the John Tracy Clinic in L.A.
“Polo in the Park” is being organized by the clinic’s Women’s Auxiliary to celebrate a half-century of support for the center, which provides free services for hearing-impaired children. The event will include the finals of the Will Rogers Memorial Tournament held by the Will Rogers Polo Club as well as a polo exhibition and live and silent auctions.
The clinic, named after Louise and Spencer Tracy’s deaf son, was founded by the Tracys in 1942 to help preschool children with hearing problems. For more information about the event, call Lori Forthmann at (310) 474-3591.
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