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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2021
Brookings, Oregon
Community kitchens are not the real problem By Diana Bosetti The Pilot
As recently enacted community kitchen restrictions have grabbed the attention of various news outlets, a local founder of the group that represents charitable kitchens is urging a greater focus on fundamental shifts in poverty, homelessness and mental illness instead. “The flaw is that the city is kind of playing up that it’s the community kitchens that bring in the homeless and there’s no proof of that,” said Roger Gilbert, the founder and director of Brooking’s Community Kitchens - a non-profit collective of several local churches. Gilbert said in order to understand why benevolent kitchens are so hotly debated it’s important to understand why they began. In 2006, Gilbert moved to Brookings with his wife. Decades removed from the Vietnam War, Gilbert noticed a couple of years later that disabled and traumatized veterans were abundant. “I started talking to people on the street and many were Vietnam vets like myself,” he said. “Vets who put their life on the line for their country were sleeping on benches and eating out of dumpsters. That's when we decided to open the first community kitchen.” In 2009 and with $400 in seed money, Brookings Seventh Day Adventist Church started preparing and handing out food on Mondays. “Other churches said ‘Wow, that looks like a good ministry,’” Gilbert said. Within a year’s time, St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church opened
The Pilot file photo
Rob Barker, left, looks on as volunteers prepare food in the kitchen at St. Timothy's. The city of Brookings recently passed an ordinance that will limit the number of days community kitchens can serve food to the needy.
Kitchen rules getting nationwide attention By Diana Bosetti The Pilot
Benevolent kitchens are trending. On October 25, when the Brookings City Council voted to limit benevolent meal services to two days a week and three hours or fewer per day, it quickly More Kitchens, Page A5 became more than a small, rural
town issue. Media groups like Fox News, KFUG Community News, Channel 12 Newswatch, Relevant Magazine, Vice and the New York Times took notice. Type the name Father Bernie Lindley on Twitter, and tweets of support for the charismatic pastor at St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church pop up.
“Shout out to Rev. Bernie Lindley, we need more people like them in this world,” wrote one self-described Star Wars nerd and Libertarian Communist Twitter user. Letters of support, some of them enclosed in envelopes containing donations, also started to pour in. “It’s a bit overwhelming,”
Lindley said, adding that he wants to respond to each of the letters but many of them still sit on his desk, unopened. According to Lindley, it costs about $7,000 each year to run the community kitchen. “My guess is that when I open all of those letters, they will
More Rules, Page A5
Elected Community bazaar returns this weekend leaders applaud progress By DAVID RUPKALVIS The Pilot
After weeks of debate and internal struggle in the House of Representatives, the U.S. Congress passed the infrastructure package that has been discussed for months. Almost all of the Oregon delegation voted in favor of the package, which has been championed by Pres. Joe Biden. Congressman Peter DeFazio applauded the bill’s passage, saying the needs in Oregon are obvious. “House Democrats are building back better for the American people,” DeFazio said. “The long-overdue investments in our nation’s infrastructure included in the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act will grow the economy, strengthen our global competitiveness, create good-paying union jobs that can’t be sent overseas and make our communities more resilient, livable and equitable. In particular, the infrastructure bill will make badly-needed improvements More Applaud, Page A9
Contributed photo
After a year off due to COVID, the Brookings-Harbor Community Bazaar will return this weekend with more than 95 vendors selling items.
More than 95 vendors expected at 51st annual event By Diana Bosetti The Pilot
The 51st annual Brookings Harbor Community Bazaar will be held this Saturday, Nov. 13, from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m., at both the Azalea Middle School Gym and
Brookings-Harbor High School cafeteria. The event will include hand-crafted items from over 95 vendors and is sponsored by the Philanthropic Educational Organization. The international nonprofit has a chapter in Brook-
ings, which has provided over 30 educational scholarships to women in the community. Some of this year’s vendors come from as far away as Medford, and include makers of copper jewelry, crocheted rugs, Native American art, fudge, dog biscuits and more.
Noise parade returns to Brookings Unemployment rate drops to 4.7% AT CURRYPILOT.COM
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“I’ve only been acquainted with the bazaar since I moved here, but it seems like it gets bigger and bigger every year,” said Suzanne Henning, who as publicity chair for the Brookings
More Bazaar, Page A10
INDEX Crosswords.................................. A10 Classifieds............................... A6 Crossword Answers................. A8
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