Brookings pair offer free gourmet meals for all

Roger Gilbert and Ernest Madden prepare food for their soup kitchen program in Brookings. The Pilot/Marjorie Woodfin

But Brookings residents Roger Gilbert and Ernest Madden are living proof that the adage doesn’t apply to Brookings-Harbor.

The two men, with help from their friends and support from churches and other groups, are working to help serve free gourmet meals three days a week.

If there is a “Soup Kitchen” sign on display outside of the Seventh-day Adventist or St. Timothy’s Episcopal churches or His Haven of Hope, it means free food is being served to anyone who is hungry. Rich or poor, permanent resident or just passing through, all are welcome to enjoy a gourmet meal.

Free lunch is served from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Mondays at the Seventh-day Adventist Church, 102 Park Ave., and on Tuesdays at St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church, 401 Fir St. On Fridays, the dynamic duo join with friends from the Outreach Gospel Mission to serve dinner beginning at 5:30 p.m. at His Haven of Hope, 702 Chetco Ave.

“And, we serve gourmet meals,” said Gilbert, who was a professional chef for 30 years in Sacramento before he moved to Brookings in 2005.

“I checked out the coast clear up to Seattle and found two places in Oregon I considered settling in: Newport and Brookings,” he said. “I chose Brookings and that was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.”

Gilbert, who was only semi-retired when he moved to Brookings, worked for Fred Meyer for three years before really retiring, and began working on his dream of providing free food for all.

During that first three years he met Madden, who was active in the Curry County Homeless Coalition and also had a dream of feeding the hungry. The two hit it off like “peanut butter and jelly” and started working together.

With the Homeless Coalition Madden was helping just the homeless but, as the two men’s dreams started taking shape, they agreed that they wanted to feed anyone who came to the banquet, needy or not.

“Everyone is welcome at God’s table,” Gilbert said.

Madden explained that when his 20-year marriage fell apart in 1994, he left Canada and headed for San Francisco, looking for old friends. After 20 years it seemed impossible to find any old friends so he just started driving north. “And the first place I was out of the smog, was Brookings, so I stopped,” he said.

Madden understands what it means to be homeless.

“For the first year-and-a-half in Brookings, I was homeless, living in my van,” he said.

The soup kitchen idea, he said, first took shape at the Seventh-day Adventist Church where women from the church helped to provide three different soups for lunch each Monday.

Gilbert was serving free meals at St. Timothy’s when the two joined forces.

Madden said, “He was an answer to my prayers and I was an answer to his.”

As lunch was being served recently at St. Timothy’s, it was impossible to tell which of the diners enjoying the warm friendly atmosphere and delicious pasta and trimmings might have gone hungry without the meal.

Everyone appeared to be having a great time, laughing, joking and sharing, especially the cheery chefs and their helpers behind the counter.

The two men are delighted to provide meals three days a week, but they insist that it won’t stop there. They are looking for new sites, more donations, and additional volunteers to make it possible to feed their clients on Wednesday and Thursday, and to have wheels to allow food to be delivered to those unable to get to the serving sites.

“Bernie (Lindley, pastor of St. Timothy’s Church) is going to help us go to other churches to ask for help,” Madden said.

Gilbert is proud of the quality of food they serve.

“Everything is freshly cooked daily, no canned food, and we take all leftovers go to the mission,” he said.

Anyone who would like information, make a donation or volunteer time, can reach Gilbert at 541-251-3653 or Madden at 541-251-0148.