The mission of “Dignity Diner,” a restaurant style meal program in Chicago, is to feed the homeless and hungry “with respect and dignity.” That is exactly what Dignity Diner does every Tuesday night when its doors open to feed approximately 50 homeless and hungry patrons who reside in the Chicago area. The diner is located at Holy Covenant United Methodist Church in the Lincoln Park section of the city. Lincoln Park is one of the wealthier communities in Chicago so it may appear unusual to some community members that a meal program is being operated in their community. Through outreach efforts, the diner has gained support from community members and groups who may have once been apprehensive in having the diner in their community. Many of the Dignity Diner volunteers are prominent members of community boards, students at the local universities, members of local churches, or just people who live in the community and want to help.
The real key is that the patrons feel that they belong to a community when they have typically been shunned by society. Dignity Diner has many regular patrons so it is always nice to see their faces each week and to know that they feel that level of comfort in what the diner offers them, which is a meal served with dignity. The diner is not like a typical soup kitchen as volunteer wait staff serves the meals as if the patrons were in an actual restaurant setting. The diner also has many regular volunteers so the patrons get to know their servers very well and will even ask for the same particular table each week.
Dignity Diner first opened its doors back in 1992. The former pastor of Holy Covenant United Methodist and her daughter, who was active in the city’s vegetarian society, were looking for space to hold a vegetarian restaurant style meal program that would assist Chicago’s homeless population. The goal was to have the program run like a regular restaurant in which the patrons could call and make a reservation just like one would do if dining in a regular restaurant. So, that is exactly what Dignity Diner got started to do and is still doing right in the basement of Holy Covenant United Methodist Church.
What is a typical evening like at Dignity Diner?. Volunteers start arriving at around 5pm to start cooking the meal and setting up the tables as more volunteers will arrive around 5:30pm to help with the serving and clean-up process. The doors to the church sanctuary open at 6pm every Tuesday as this is the only day that the diner is open. Patrons enter and get checked in by Kara Teeple, the Diner Director, and they can choose the table where they would like to be seated. If a patron came the week before and returns the following week, their reservation is held. Walk-ins are always welcome if we have the space to accommodate. Otherwise, a new reservation is made for the following week and the patron is given a meal to go.
Patrons mingle and have a cup of coffee in the back of the church as there is always a fresh pot of coffee on and chairs set up for people to engage with volunteers and other fellow patrons along with watching some television.
At 6:15pm, the Diner Director conducts a brief community meeting with the patrons and volunteers to make any announcements, discuss any issues, or merely to check in with the patrons to see if there is anything that needs to be discussed. Tables are then called and the volunteer servers assigned to each of the tables then escort their assigned patrons to their tables. Salad is then served to the patrons by their servers as well as the servers taking coffee and juice orders. Then the main course is served and this dish is always vegetarian as that is how the diner got started so this has just never changed. Many patrons have expressed their wish in keeping the diner strictly of vegetarian cuisine.
Dessert is served after each patron has finished their meal, even seconds if there is enough. Patrons have the chance to chat at their tables until about 7:30pm when the clean-up process begins. Then, goodbyes are given and patrons are told to have a good week and that the diner staff will see them the following Tuesday.
During the diner hours, donated clothing and hygiene products are also distributed. The patrons are always in need of such items so the diner staff is always in contact with local churches and community organizations for donations of this kind.
