By Voice staff

At the site of its own free dining room in downtown Oakland, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul of Alameda County will celebrate 70 years of service in the community with a four-course meal prepared by students and graduates of the organization’s culinary training program.

Chef Michael Stamm

The celebration, the third of SVDP’s Guest Chef series, will be held from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. on Nov. 19 at 675-23rd St. in Oakland. The menu, selected by the student chefs along with Chef Michael Stamm, will consist of Hamachi Crudo, beet and Valencia orange salad, grilled Meyer Ranch hanger steak, and caramel apple bread pudding.

Launched last year, the Kitchen of Champions program teaches cooking and job skills to low-income adults. It provides hands-on food preparation, classroom instruction and job placement services.

The cost of the Nov. 19 meal is $70 per person. The dinner price and gratuities return to the Kitchen of Champions Culinary Program. RSVP is required and tickets must be purchased in advanced. For information/reservations, call (510) 636-4261.

The international Society of St. Vincent de Paul was founded in 1833 by Frederic Ozanam, a 20-year-old student at the Sorbonne University in Paris, France.

Challenged to “practice what they preach,” Ozanam and a group of fellow students reached out to the poor, bringing bread, clothing and friendship. The small group adopted St. Vincent de Paul, known as the “Apostle of Charity,” as their patron. Similar groups began forming throughout Paris, then spread to the rest of France and eventually throughout the world.

The first St. Vincent de Paul group in the U.S., known as a conference, was established in St. Louis, Missouri in 1845. The first conference in Alameda County started in 1882 at Sacred Heart Parish in Oakland. Although the initial Sacred Heart Conference was active for only 10 years, it served as a “beacon of light” within the county.

That light was revived 56 years later when the Society was reestablished in 1938 and six conferences were organized. In the decades that followed the agency responded in different ways to the changing needs of the poor. In the 1940s, for example, SVDP established thrift stores that collected and sold gently used items to raise funds for the poor. In the mid-1970s the society opened the free dining room and served free hot daily meals for those in need.

With its new Kitchen of Champions program SVDP provides job training services to help low income adults gain the skills needed to step into employment.

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