Each Tuesday, Uncle Food's Diner serves meals at Trinity Episcopal Church Parish Hall in downtown Ashland from 4-6 pm. In addition to 100 hot meals served each week, Uncle Food's Diner distributes excess donations to community partners. It is also a platform for emergency care.
Joining the Exchange to discuss the iconic local food program is Elizabeth Hallett from Peace House.
The full-service dinner program, known as Uncle Food's Diner began in response to an emerging need in the Ashland community to provide a hot, nutritious meal and help fill the gaps in food security in a compassionate environment where all are welcome and valued.
Over the past three decades, Uncle Food’s Diner has taken a variety of forms in response to shifting needs of hungry people in the Rogue Valley.
For more than 15 years, the United Methodist Church in Ashland hosted the meal in their Wesley Hall, where on average 100 people gathered each Tuesday. The Tuesday Community Meal included a full dinner menu, as well as fresh produce, and social services including faith leaders, health care workers, and cooks offering a comfortable respite service for those in need of support.
In 2020-2021 when COVID shut down many food programs and isolated individuals and families, Peace House provided a crisis response in coordination with partners, and delivered hot meals to five locations across Ashland, seven days a week. During this phase, Uncle Food’s employed five full time cooks, purchased a delivery van, and provided full-day meal bags for approximately 100 people a day, four days per week.
When the Almeda fire displaced thousands of people, Uncle Food's Diner contributed meals to fire survivors housed in local hotels and campgrounds and supported emergency workers when needed.
