Friday Feast
One of Seattle's longest running Soup Kitchens
From its inception, Friday Feast has aimed to provide a restaurant quality meal to the homeless and food insecure population of Seattle with respect for the dignity of the neighbors it serves. Everyone is welcome. Now, as in the beginning, Friday Feast guests often play integral roles in the production and execution of every meal which still operates almost entirely on donated materials and volunteer labor. The result of all this is a highly respected meal program and a community marked by mutual relationships and care.
Our Story
Friday Feast was started in 1996 by former ROOTS Executive Director, Sinan Demirel, as a way of honoring the memory of his mother, a woman dedicated to service and hospitality. It began as an experiment: Could a gourmet meal be prepared as a community volunteer effort for dozens of people in need and without any funding or purchasing of food or any formal organization whatsoever? Sinan rallied his colleagues in the UW Sociology department to try to do something less theoretical and more hands-on. He started dumpster diving and petitioning local bakeries and grocery stores in order to glean their throwaways. The idea was initially met with resistance by many organizations and faith communities.
But the work continued and the first meal was served out of the University Baptist Church to about 35 people in March of ’96. Soon the numbers grew to about 60, and four years later about 90 people regularly accessed the program. In April of 2000, Friday Feast moved into University Temple Methodist Church at about the same time the church Thrift Store started, and a fruitful and symbiotic relationship was established. In 2020, the meal moved to the Chapel on The Ave garage where it rode out the Covid 19 pandemic as a to-go style meal, never missing a Friday meal service.
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Currently, Friday Feast continues to be hosted in the Chapel on The Ave garage, a humble but well-loved space, where roughly 150 people are served each week.
Our Team
Colin Leadbetter
Executive Chef
Ashley Van Dragt
Program Coordinator
Friday Feast is very much a volunteer-led organization. With only one part-time employee, each year, hundreds of volunteers do the heavy lifting of setting up, serving up and cleaning up each meal. Several volunteers have been serving faithfully for over 20 years. ​Friday Feast is also overseen by a board of directors.
Current Board Members:
​​​​Dr. Elizabeth Blankespoor, President
Dr. Raymond Cheng, Treasurer
Shannon De Jong, Secretary
Dr. Charles Lee
Andrew Shiau
Our hope
Our hope is that every person we welcome at Friday Feast will experience warm hospitality and be nourished by the hot meal, the free produce and the relationships with volunteers and fellow guests.
