Recently OPERATION: Sack Lunch put on the Ritz at our spectacular dinner/concert Benefit held at the beautiful Emerald Chapel in Ballard. The venue was beautiful, perfect for the occasion. The acoustics were superb, the audience everything a performer could hope for. The food was exceptional and the meal was planned and prepared by our head Volunteer chef, Dave Mathews, Chief Staff Chef, Marcus Ennis, and OSL staff members Terry, Michael, Susan and Lynn.

Over the past seven years OPERATION: Sack Lunch has hired staff from our client base, giving many people help, up and out of unfortunate life situations. We not only provide training in food preparation and service but also provide mentoring in social skill development.  We have helped several formerly homeless individuals to move forward into productive lives.

For several years OPERATION: Sack Lunch has wished to formalize the training portion of our program.

Our Volunteer Head Chef, Dave Mathews has volunteered for OPERATION: Sack Lunch for the past six years contributing his unique style, skill, and expertise as a culinary artist as an offering of choice and respect to those in our community who often do not have the opportunity to partake in exceptional cuisine.

Add the years of experience and creativity of Chief Staff Chef, Marcus and we will be able to offer a culinary arts training program that will give our students an edge in the industry. Our desire is to train individuals from our client base to not simply work in the food industry earning minimum wage, but to train in the skills of culinary artistry that will help make them desirable to be employed in the higher paying positions as chefs.

Along with our training facility we plan on opening a small Bistro, where the exquisite creations prepared by our students, will be offered to the general public, to help with our continued funding. After training in our facility, and serving a compensated apprenticeship, OPERATION: Sack Lunch will help secure positions in area restaurants.

This new exciting stage in our grass roots organization will require the resources and talent of a greater community to help turn this life-altering dream into a reality.

We now move forward into a new stage of our continuously developing organization with the confidence that we will not only be successful in helping to raise the standard of living for our students, but also effectively help us to begin to fund our own program.

We will gratefully accept information, expertise, planning, and donations to help implement this exciting program.