Free Meals Fill Empty Stomachs At Meeting Place More Than Three Dozen Come Twice A Week For All They Can Eat

A pot of refried beans and a platter of ground beef were heating on the stove inside a Hillyard storefront.

Jose Lopez, 52, a volunteer cook, stirred and made sure the meal was ready for all who would come.

At 4:30 p.m. two more volunteers appeared. Laura Jones Hastings and Nell Ann Lindquist proceeded to scrub tables, prepare platters and wash windows.

At 5 p.m. The Meeting Place, 4811 N. Market, was abuzz with the energy of kids, some of whom came running through the entrance with backpacks. They picked out donated school supplies and filled their mouths with soda pop and tacos.

Two nights a week The Meeting Place provides meals for anyone who comes.

It feeds some 40 people, two-thirds of whom are children, at each sitting.

The meals were started by David Tucker, a gospel singer who needed a place to stage Christian music on weekends. He quickly discovered that hot meals were a more important need and persuaded his church, Mountain View Assembly of God, 633 E. Magnesium Road, to partially sponsor the meals as an outreach activity.

“We don’t have a service or anything like that. We just want to help people get by,” said Tucker.

On Monday night, Tucker also had four boxes of clothes available for the taking as well as notebook paper and index cards for the kids.

“Who needs a comb?” he asked before handing them out to three boys and a girl. The combs, like the food, came from the Spokane Food Bank.

Tucker himself has seen hard times. A Vietnam vet, he’s held jobs as diverse as a steelworker and radio broadcaster.

He has five children, including one who is disabled and one who is in prison.

Still, providing the meals has become his passion, even though he’s had to cut back from four days a week because of the cost.

Monday’s menu included tacos and salad as well as soda pop and cookies, two items that usually aren’t on the menu but happened to be available at the food bank.

“We serve more or less whatever we have in hand,” said Lopez, a disabled construction worker who once worked as a cook in San Diego.

Among the regulars for the Monday and Thursday meals is Joyce Curran, 46, and her two sons, Nathan, 14 and Chris, 12. Curran, A Hillyard resident, pieces together a living with beadwork, knitting and selling Avon products.

“This is the way we get to eat restaurant style,” she said after being served a plate of tacos by Jones. “We go out once in a while but not very often.”

Also eating tacos and drinking a soda was Nathan Glatzmaier, 13, who was supervising his four brothers, ages 11, 9, 6 and 4.

All were regulars at The Meeting Place and come on Mondays and Thursdays without their parents.

“More kids come here than grownups,” said Nathan, a student at Shaw Middle School. “Parents are embarrassed.”

He isn’t and said he likes the food and also likes that he can go back for seconds and eat until he is filled.

The family tries to donate what it can, and he helped paint the building when it opened in 1994 and pitched in to help wash cars at a recent fundraiser.

“I know everybody who comes here,” he said.

“I just don’t know their names.” , DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: MEAL TIMES The Meeting Place serves dinner at 4811 N. Market from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. every Monday and Thursday. Volunteer work and contributions of food are always appreciated. For more information, call David Tucker at 487-0542.