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September
24, 2006
VOL.
44, NO. 15Oakland,
CA
Soup kitchen
closes after
serving meals for 30 years
The Muffin
Men had just arrived. Shirley Weber’s gastronomical radar clicked
into high gear. What delectable foodstuffs were they bringing that day
which could factor into tomorrow’s luncheon menu at St. Andrew-St.
Joseph Soup Kitchen, its veteran cook wondered?
The 74-year-old New Orleans native broke into a pleased grin as Frank
Spagnoletta and Jack Dice from St. Monica Parish in Moraga set a large
cardboard box on the table for her to inspect. She opened the flaps and
surveyed a bounteous supply of ham steaks and sausages.
“We’ll have jambalaya,” Weber decided with satisfaction,
breathing in the heady aromas.
Their promising aroma of future delicacies joined the tantalizing smells
already coming from the top of the stove and the oven. Guests would feast
today on roast turkey, gravy, rice, and snap beans. “We’ll
have sweets, too,” said the cook, eying some decadent looking chocolate
cakes Spagnoletta and Dice had just unloaded from another box.
Interchanges similar to this one become comforting daily rituals since
1986 when Shirley Weber began volunteering at the soup kitchen. She had
moved from Louisiana to Oakland to take care of her ailing aunt, who was
being looked after by a group of parish kitchen volunteers including Deacon
Leo Edgerly, Sr. Edgerly encouraged Weber to join the soup kitchen volunteer
corps as head cook, bringing with her years of experience as a restaurant
cook.
The Muffin Men pick up day-old bread, pastries and other food donations
from supermarkets, delis and bakeries throughout the East Bay for deliveries
to St. Andrew/St. Joseph, A Friendly manor, St. Mary’s Senior Center,
the Mother Wright Foundation, and sometimes the St. Vincent de Paul Dining
Room, “if there’s an overflow,” said Dice. The two men
have never eaten any of Weber’s meals because they show up too early
in the day. “But we don’t have to sample Shirley’s cooking
to know that it’s good. The aromas tell us all we need to know,”
said Spagnoletta.
This particular visit from The Muffin Men would be one of their last.
In eight more days, on Aug. 18, Weber would cook her last lunch at St.
Andrew/St. Joseph’s. The kitchen would shut its doors after 30 years
of serving hungry people around the Brockhurst and San Pablo area of Oakland.
On Aug. 27, the parish officially became part of the new Catholic Parish
of Christ the Light, which will move to its home – the new cathedral
– in two years.
St. Mary’s Senior Center will move into the parish plant in November,
where it will continue to provide hot meals and social services to homeless
seniors. The old kitchen, along with its brilliantly colorful outside
wall of murals depicting the founder, Gertrude Martinez, as well as past
volunteers and leaders, will be demolished to make room for a parking
lot.
Besides saying goodbye to her Muffin Men friends, Weber also paid sad
farewells to the daily guests. And to Mary Lou and Deacon Eugene Stelly,
Sr., who have been Weber’s companions in the soup kitchen ministry
for the past dozen years: Mary Lou, as kitchen manager, and Deacon Stelly
as a daily volunteer and treasurer.
Weber, who insists she is not ready to retire, would like to cook somewhere
else, to continue be of service to the hungry and homeless. To say grace
with them each day over plates of steaming hot jambalaya and roast turkey,
meals she has served up with love in her heart.
“I worry about where they will all go to eat,” she said.
Shirley Weber, master cook at St. Andrew-St. Joseph Soup
Kitchen for the past 20 years, prepares a plate of food during one of
the final meals served at the Oakland kitchen.
CHRIS DUFFEY PHOTO
