Soup's On!

“I take very seriously Jesus’ commandment to love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and your neighbor as yourself," Areta Crowell told me that when I asked her why she was involved with the interfaith network Family Promise of East San Fernando Valley.

Crowell is on the mission committee of . The local church is one of 24 congregations from North Hollywood, Burbank, Glendale, and Eagle Rock whose members comprise the Family Promise network. Director Jaqueline White describes the organization as “a transitional housing program that rebuilds the lives of homeless children and their families.”

You’ve read about the program before on Patch when I covered their fall fundraiser, , and you’ve seen a video of teenagers from Adat Ari El for the families in the program. 

On June 5, Family Promise will be holding its first annual Empty Bowl event at St. Finbar Church in Burbank. For a donation of $25 ($10 for kids) you will be able to select a handmade ceramic bowl and fill it with delicious soup donated by California Pizza Kitchen, Gary Bric’s Ramp, Granville Café, Henry‘s Farmer’s Market, Pomodoro, The Café Victory and The Riverside Café.  Included bread and dessert will be provided by Henry’s, Olive Garden, Pomodoro, and Panera Bread.

Donors will leave the event with an original ceramic bowl. “Who doesn’t want to go home with something beautiful?” said Family Promise board vice-president and potter Barbara Lazar, a member of congregation. “After you participate in the fundraiser you take this home and enjoy it, and every time you look at it you’re reminded of homeless families in need.”

“It's easy,” said Ruth Devine, chair of the Adat Ari El’s social action committee Abraham’s Tent. “It’s between 12:30 pm and 3:30 pm. Come any time, grab your bowl, grab your soup. It's something different than another dinner, another silent auction.”

Ceramic artists have donated 350 bowls, with about 150 coming from the teachers and professionals at Burbank Creative Arts Center and another 100 from students and faculty at Glendale Community College. One 80-year-old volunteer donated a single bowl. Ellisa Weekley created 70 by herself at Glendale.

“I love making bowls,” Weekley told me when I asked what motivated her. “My basic core belief is that if we have a gift, it is to share and make it a better world, to lighten the burden for others.”

Family Promise is not a shelter. The churches and synagogues in the interfaith network open their doors to families who, due to a pink slip or unanticipated illness, find themselves suddenly uprooted and alone. White uses the expression “situationally homeless.”

Up to four families at a time sleep at a hosting house of worship for one week, with their meals prepared and served by volunteers from a partnering support congregation, and then move on to the next host for the next week.

White provides counseling and case management at a day center daily from 7:00 am to 5:00 pm. Adults can use the computers in the resource room there to look for housing, and work if they’re unemployed. Some clients use the help to attend school or achieve certification. The average time it takes for client families to “graduate” from the program, by gaining control over their finances and finding housing, is under 60 days.

Crowell volunteers at the day center once a week. “One of the nice things about it is it gives me an opportunity to know the families well. They're wonderful people who are working hard to get themselves out of the hole they’re in.”

Andrew Roginson is another volunteer from Faith Presbyterian. “I got tapped on the shoulder. I thought it was God but it was only Areta,” he joked. Roginson loves to cook and serve meals during his church’s support week and often stays overnight with the families as a chaperone at their host church in Burbank.  “An expression that comes to mind every morning is ‘How can I make myself useful today?’ That's the way I live.”

 “This is a situation where we’ve got the ability to provide a little bit of support and really make a difference in people’s lives,” said Mary Adney, Family Promise board member and the coordinator of the Empty Bowl event.  “And there’s also the sense of there but for the grace of God [go I].”