By Lauren Collins’ email=’Lauren.Collins@mi-reporter.com

I first stepped into the Boomtown Cafe five years ago as a wide-eyed volunteer who knew nothing about Seattle’s homeless population. It was my first summer of the VOICE (Volunteer Outreach In Communities Everywhere) program, and here I was at 6 a.m., filling up ketchup bottles as a line of 50 people who had just awoken from a night on the streets were lined up and eagerly awaiting a hot, delicious breakfast. It only took one day at Boomtown for me to realize that the customers were struggling with all kinds of pain, but the cafe was nourishing hope, love and understanding with every plate.

The Boomtown Cafe is a non-profit restaurant which serves nutritious, low cost meals in a clean, dignified setting to the homeless and low-income residents in the Seattle downtown core. Boomtown produces over 30,000 meals per month, subsidizing its operations with fund-raising, obtaining grants and selling contract meals to local shelters. However, Boomtown is so much more than just a restaurant. It’s a place where people can find support, pitch in and feel worth. It’s a place where people with serious addictions, mental illnesses or those who have simply fallen on hard times can reach for a hand up — not a hand out. If a customer is ready to recover, they can find support, referrals, assistance and others who are fighting their fight. For the last six years, the summer VOICE program has been closely and intimately involved with the cafe’s operations. Mercer Island volunteers have served thousands of meals at the cafe and it quickly became one of the most popular, dynamic, educational and fulfilling volunteer projects in our program. Our youth serve meals and cook alongside the chefs. One dynamic of the cafe is that when clients can’t afford a meal ($1.50 for breakfast, $2 for lunch) they can volunteer time for meal credits. In this way, everyone who eats at the cafe participates in an exchange, maintaining the degree of dignity and choice associated with a restaurant. VOICE works alongside the customers, which is where the most education takes place. The environment at Boomtown isn’t always calm, happy or immediately accepting. Customers can be intimidating to young volunteers. Serving at Boomtown is sometimes a tough lesson in patience and understanding. The young volunteers learn great lessons in personal sacrifice and the importance of stepping out of their comfort zones. Personally, the cafe introduced me to perspectives of a population that I had never truly encountered. My mentor at Boomtown constantly challenged me to form observations and become educated about Seattle’s street life: “This is what our city does with the mentally ill and the sick. Look at all these people, nobody chooses this life,” he stressed. As a VOICE leader five years later, I have to stress to my volunteers that they can’t make Boomtown customers become clean and sober. They can’t find people jobs or secure permanent housing. But they can listen and learn and provide a non-judgmental presence; they can carry out Boomtown’s mission of promoting a dignified setting of equality and tolerance. Boomtown recently closed down indefinitely due to a funding crisis, yet they are trying to raise enough funds to reopen. This closure has deeply impacted the patrons, staff and volunteers. Boomtown’s closure has also put pressure on other Seattle feeding programs, who are working tirelessly to fill the void that the cafe’s shutdown has created. The VOICE staff is deeply committed to Boomtown’s future. We know that Boomtown has touched countless hearts, and we can only hope to reciprocate some of this love. VOICE would like to invite you to come see the cafe, 513 3rd Ave., on Monday, Aug. 22, from 6 to 9 p.m. as we host a benefit art show and open house. Art from VOICE artists will be sold, with proceeds benefiting the cafe. Please come support the cafe and its mission and the hundreds of Mercer Island youth who have, over the years, invested their time and energy into the success of the cafe. For more information, please call 206-236-7293 Lauren Collins is VOICE staff member and former VOICE volunteer. She will be a junior at Whitman College. She served on the Board of Directors for Boomtown Cafe from 2001-03.