Family Kitchen offers free meal service

Every Tuesday from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Family Kitchen will be hosting a free hot meal to-go (until it’s COVID-safe to eat together again) at Sisters Community Church.

No paperwork or requirements apply — participants are invited to just show up and give their order.

“Anybody who comes to us, we assume they need a meal — and they get one,” said Family Kitchen Program Director Donna Burklo.

Burklo told The Nugget that Family Kitchen started in downtown Bend in 1986, with some church volunteers cooking meals at home.

Nowadays, the organization operates out of a commercial kitchen and offers eight meals a week in Bend.

Burklo said that the program extended to Sisters after about a year of laying groundwork in an effort to make sure that the program was a good fit for the community. She worked with advocate Mandee Seeley and with Elizabeth Kirby, who is heading a food security committee for the community organization Citizens4Community.

“I started hearing from people calling in hoping they’d make it on time to the meal in Bend, because they were located in Sisters,” Burklo said.

She said the group wanted to be respectful of the Sisters community, and approached the matter under the framework: “We’ve got something that works. Would it work for you here?”

The answer was yes, and the kitchen provided its first meals on October 26.

The program will continue — and may expand depending on need and facilities.

“We’re in for the long haul for the one meal a week,” Burklo said.

Volunteers do the cooking and cleanup, with Family Kitchen staff supervising. A volunteer will be on hand with supplies such as toiletries, clothes, etc. for anyone who needs them.

For more information, to donate, or to volunteer, visit http://www.FamilyKitchen.org.

Sisters Community Church is located at 1300 W. McKenzie Hwy. in Sisters.