PIKE MARKET SENIOR CENTER

Members of the Pike Market Senior Center prepare pho noodle soup for a special lunch event: World Table Saigon

At the Pike Market Senior Center a long row of soup bowls are filled with piping hot portions of pho noodle soup, prepared by a group of Vietnamese women. It’s a special lunch event-World Table Saigon.

“There is not a lack of food in this country, but there is a lack of effective distribution— in a form they can use it,” says Michael Montgomery, Meals Program Manager at the Pike Place Senior Center. More than 50% of regular members to the Senior Center are homeless, with nowhere to store groceries or prepare meals. That’s why hot, healthy meals cooked up at the Senior Center are just as needed as the packaged groceries at the Food Bank.

In addition to a lack of food, many members of the Senior Center are dealing with health issues like diabetes and hypertension. Michael prides himself in cooking not only 4,000 hot meals a month, but meals that are healthy too, meeting the nutritional guidelines for seniors. “When you go hungry, your day-to-day becomes about food,” says Michael. “Here at the Senior Center people get to sit down and have a meal together that is cooked with care—where at least for a little while they can put their worries aside.”