Today Trinity's Pam Rosser (photo attached) distributed valentines to Iron Gate guests.

The church's Daughters of the King women's group made and decorated 550 Valentine bags of sweets and the Young Parents group decorated new aprons for the volunteers.

"I really am liked," one guest told Pam.

"No," she said. "You're loved."

In December we announced a challenge. An Iron Gate board member who prefers anonymity challenged us to raise $10,000 by year's end from individual donors. If so, that amount would be matched by $10,000 from the donor.

We did it.  YOU did it.  Thanks to all who made a year-end contribution.  Your donations were matched and brought Iron Gate $20,000 to buy food.

And boy did we need it. The number of people coming to Iron Gate to eat has gone through the roof.  We are not alone in this phenomenon.

The Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma, where we get most of our food free or deeply discounted, reports that in 2011 the number of Oklahomas seeking food assistance from emergency pantries increased 50%.  The need was even more acute  in rural Oklahoma where agencies saw an increase of as much as 60 percent.

 At Iron Gate, we served 220,000 people through the soup kitchen last year. This is up from 146,000 in 2008, the year the recession hit.  We gave emergency grocery bags to 25,600 people last year, compared to 10,400 in 2008.

As 2012 begins, we're seeing the same spike in numbers. Last week we served an average of 824 plates from the soup kitchen daily.  We estimate that one-seventh of the guests go through the serving line twice.

 Thank you for helping feed the homeless and hungry of Tulsa.

On The Other Hand...

Remember our chance to win a $10,000 grant in the Cox Connects

Foundation Community Challenge? Iron Gate was a finalist. The winner was determined by online voting.  We lost. The winner was Life Senior Services.  Where did we finish? "Somewhere in the middle of the pack," we learned. The winner was Life Senior Services. What this tells us is that we need many more online friends--on Facebook and on our eNews mailing list. Will you help?

Click here to read the full newsletter

Meet Ben MCullough, age 5.

View E-Newsletter

You can find the voting poll by visiting www.facebook.com/coxoklahoma or www.coxconnectsok.com beginning Monday, November 28.  Those without internet access may pick up a ballot at any Cox Solutions Store location. Voting is limited to one vote per person, per day at each voting site. 

Please vote early and vote often to help us win $10,000, and encourage your friends and family to get involved in the voting, too!

Iron Gate main number: 918-359-9001

Administrative:
Connie Cronley: 918-359-9017
Tanya Moore: 918-359-9022
Deborah Underwood:918-359-9044
Megan Schauer: 918-359-9030
Laura Robertson: 918-359-9039
Kitchen: 918-359-9036 or 9037 or 9038
Dining Room: 918-359-9047

This year Lawyers Against Hunger raised over $60,000 to purchase Thanksgiving meals for those in need.  Lawyers Against Hunger partnered with the Eastern Oklahoma Food Bank and Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma to purchase the food to hand out.  Co-founder and attorney Noble McIntyre commented that  "I've never missed a Thanksgiving meal and don't expect too many of my lawyer friends have either. This was one area we could give back and make a difference. Last year's event provided food for more than 4,500 hungry Oklahomans. This year's event will be even bigger."

This year Lawyers Against Hunger had a competition between Tulsa, Oklahoma City, and Norman to see which group of attorneys could raise the most money.  It came down to the wire and Tulsa narrowly beat Oklahoma City with Norman trailing in at third place.  “There are no losers in this competition, only winners from each community where we raised funds to help feed the hungry” said Hugh M. Robert, co-founder of Lawyers Against Hunger.  “All funds raised by lawyers in the respective competition cities are staying in those cities.  We partnered with Iron Gate to help identify those in need and include many deserving groups such as Emergency Infant Services, Veterans groups, Youth Services, and many more,” says Robert. 

Robert went on to describe “one of the many reasons why we had such a great response from Lawyers and many other groups is that we all recognized the significant need after seeing Oklahoma ranked as the fifth hungriest state in the country with many of the hungry being children.”  

"It is very fulfilling to give back to the community," said co-founder and Norman attorney David Bernstein. "Thanks to donations from attorneys and local businesses in Cleveland County to Lawyers Against Hunger, as well as the invaluable assistance, we are receiving from the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma, we have expanded the turkey giveaway to Cleveland County to make sure local families do not go hungry on Thanksgiving."

The turkey will feed 10 or 11 people and the pantry box is designed to supplement a family of 4 for an entire week.  This is the third year lawyers have raised money to help provide Thanksgiving meals and the number of families fed has more than doubled each year.

Click here to view the photo gallery.

Read the full article ont he Tulsa World website.

http://okpolicy.org/blog/poverty/poverty-rises-in-oklahoma-children-especially-bearing-the-brunt/

http://www.thedaily.com/page/2011/10/02/100211-news-fed-phones-1-3/

Read full story at latimes.com

Read Full Story at Money.CNN.com

Read Full Article at news.yahoo.com

Read Full Article at TulsaWorld.com

Full Article on Salon.com

Read Article on OKPolicy.org

New report on food insecurity.  You can use stats on child food insecurity and/or data specific to OK & Tulsa Co.

http://feedingamerica.org/our-network/the-studies/map-the-gap.aspx

Please make your calendars and listen to find out about the correlations between hunger, food insecurity, and obesity in Oklahoma.

Your heart is warm, but the weather is not. So - let us send YOUR valentine a love-you card on your behalf.
Just make a contribution in the name of your valentine (you can even donate on line), give us their name and address,and we'll do the rest.
And - your gift will give hungry people a hot and hearty meal during this freeezzzing, blizzzzard season.

Iron Gate
501 South Cincinnati Avenue
Tulsa, Oklahoma 74103
918-582-4128

www.irongatetulsa.org

Forecast: Cold weather and the homeless-- Not a good combination.     

Meet Laura and Todd(right).The newly married couple are having a hard time.They live in their car or camp outside.      

Now Laura is ill, she suspects withthe respiratory infection affecting many of our guests this month.

We have given the couple extra blankets and persuaded them to go to the Salvation Army Shelter tonight as snow and sleet moves into Tulsa.

Helping Hands from Volunteer Groups

Representatives from the Indian Health Care Resource Center administered free flu shots at Iron Gate today.

Iron Gate's mission is feeding people. To connect our guests with the services they need, we invite representatives from collaborating agencies. We work regularly with Veteran's Administration, Day Center for the Homeless, Baptist Care Center (for clothing), Youth Services of Tulsa, Catholic Charities, and others.

St. Patrick Episcopal Church's youth group volunteered recently to serve the morning meal, stock the pantry and bag groceries.

Special Thanks to..

Frank and Cathy Ryan and Pioneer Cleaners.

When Frank picked up the family's cleaning, Pioneer told him, "We're comping this order. Pay it forward. Donate the value of this cleaning bill to a charity." He came immediately to Iron Gate and made a donation of $100.

Students of the Jack & Jill Tulsa Chapter andRiverfield Country Day School along withBristow Presbyterian Church, collected bags and bags of food, clothing and hygiene items for our guests. This was a project of the students themselves who were inspired to help after learning that some Tulsans are poor, homeless and hungry. Thank you students' sponsors Kim Edwards Mitchell and Michelle Anderson for teaching children and youth to be compassionate. 

Larry Harrel made a special trip to Iron Gate to donate thermal long johns for our guests - a much needed donation in this inclement weather.

February Wine & Dinner Fund Raiser

Christ Church Episcopal
is hosting a four-course dinner to benefit Iron Gate:
Saturday, Feb 19, at 6:30 p.m.
Christ Church Episcopal - Great Hall
10901 South Yale

The elegant evening will feature Mark Stenner, founder of the Tulsa Wine Club.

Reservations are required and seating is limited.
Cost:  $30 per person or $50 a couple.
Call 231-0062 to make reservations.

Sincerely,
Connie Cronley, Executive Director
Iron Gate

PDF Version | Website

Given Oklahoma’s total population of 3.7 million, and assuming that households experiencing food insecurity are the same size as the average of all households, this means that some 560,000 Oklahomans live in households that struggle with access to adequate food.  To get a clearer sense of how many people this is, imagine that on a Saturday afternoon this fall, the population in households that experience food insecurity in Oklahoma were all invited down to Norman and Stillwater to attend the football games.

Give or take a few thousand people, the food insecure could completely fill OU’s Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium(capacity: 82,122) AND OSU’s Boone Pickens Stadium (capacity: 60,218) four times over.

To find out ways to help fight hunger and food insecurity in Oklahoma, contact the Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma or the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma.

May everyone have a joyful and healthy Thanksgiving holiday.

•  The Cooking for a Cause Gala is almost full, so act fast for purchasing individual tickets ($75) or helping secure sponsorships ($10,000, $5,000, $2,500 and $1,000 options.)
   
• We have posted two new articles from the Tulsa World on our facebook page. Michael Overall’s story about 2,634 homeless students in Tulsa Public Schools, on Sunday Sept 12 and Mike Averill’s story in today’s paper, Sept 13, about Oklahoma’s new ranking—No. 4—in people needing food assistance. We’re the fourth hungriest state in the nation, up from No. 8 last year. Iron Gate is quoted in both stories. Sad but hard hitting stories and bravo to the World for keeping this tough subject before the public.
   
• We posted a new picture of Lisa Lay and Andrew Harrison who have a special request for their October wedding. Instead of wedding gifts, the couple is asking friends and family to make a donation to Iron Gate. “We are blessed,” said the note they slipped into the wedding invitations, “to have one another and to have so much comfort in our lives. We know that many people in Tulsa have nothing. So, instead of giving us a wedding gift, we ask you to consider making a donation in honor of our wedding to Iron Gate. This soup kitchen and food pantry at Trinity feeds the homeless and hungry—every day of the year.”
   
• Debra Dixon, kitchen, is taking a year-long class (once weekly sessions) to become a Certified Nutrition Manager.
• Deacon Deborah Underwood, volunteer coordinator, is setting up a sock drive for us with a competition between Holland Hall and Cascia Hall. Cold weather is coming and we need socks (and blankets.)
   
• Tanya Moore, administration, is facilitating new coordination between Youth Services and Stand in the Gap ministry to help serve the large numbers of teens we’re seeing at Iron Gate, most of whom are homeless and many of whom have aged out of foster care.
• Deacon Deborah has organized our regular, weekly serving volunteers into teams with a captain for each team—better organization.
   
• Tanya has begun working with Pratt College to allow its nursing students to do clinical hours at Iron Gate, testing blood pressure and blood sugar.
   
• Caroline Kitalong, kitchen staff, cooked 20 cases of chickens today (100 lbs) which we received free of charge from the Food Bank. Reasor’s donated a pickup truck of salad greens today. We continue our Healthy Food Initiative to get hearty but healthier food to our guests through the soup kitchen, grocery pantry and Kids’ Pantry.
   
•  As we head into the busy holiday season, several special events are scheduled at the Gate. Please put them on your calendar and join us for
  • Friday, Nov 19 – our Thanksgiving meal, 8:30-10:30 a.m. – we’ll need 30 turkeys (preferably donated)
  • Friday, Dec 17 – our Christmas meal, 8:30-10:30 a.m. – we’ll need 30 hams (preferably donated)

Cooking for a Cause will be held Oct. 7, 6:30 p.m., at Metro Appliances & More at 53rd and Mingo. In a literal moveable feast, guests move through seven kitchens to meet seven chefs from seven top Tulsa restaurants. 

Tickets are $75 and reservations may be made at Iron Gate's administrative offices at 501 South Cincinnati, on line or by phone 582-4128 ext 117. Seating is limited, so make your party's reservations early.

In our picture, Gala chair Susan Fuller Palmer, Iron Gate board member, prepares honorary chairs Margaret and Ross Swimmer for their American Gothic publicity photo.

You can signup for this event on facebook. http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=132390230128941&ref=ts

• 30 turkeys for the Thanksgiving Meal (to be held November 19, 2010)
• 30 hams for the Holiday Meal (to be held December 17, 2010)
• fresh fruits 
• fresh vegetables
• meat and cheese lunchables for the Kid's Cupboard
• Socks

Should be a great event and hope to see you all there. Have a great holiday weekend.

At Trinity Episcopal Church, Iron Gate provides food for the hungry and homeless. Next door at Third and Detroit, the First Baptist Church’s Caring Center provides clothing. 

Now Trinity and Iron Gate are joining forces to help our church neighbors with a clothing drive two Sundays—Oct. 24 and 31.

Our focus will be men’s clothing, especially:

• Men’s jeans of all sizes
• Men’s pants with 30, 32 and 34 waist
• Men’s plus size shirts, coats and jackets
• Men’s shoes.

Please donate only clothing that is clean and in good repair, preferably on hangers.  Are we being picky? No—it’s a lagniappe.  An extra courtesy for those in need.  Bring your donations to the Great Hall at Trinity Sunday Oct. 24 and 31 from 7:30 – 1 p.m.  

Read Article on NewsOK.com

Monica Barczak, Iron Gate board chair, represented Community Action Project at a special forum "The Face of Hunger in Tulsa" at Trinity Episcopal Church Sunday, Aug 29.

Iron Gate facilitate d a panel of Sandra Lewis, Day Center for the Homeless; Michaela Brose, Mental Health Association, Pat Woodrum, Trinity; Connie Cronley, Iron Gate; and Monica.

Some 150 people attended the forum to learn about housing, food, health, unemployment and assistance issues in Tulsa in this recessive economy. The panel was so well received, it will be offered to other churches and civic organizations.

Be watching the Tulsa World for a detailed story by Bill Sherman about the forum.

Sara Waggoner, director of the Community Food bank, said she is not surprised at the crowd. “We’re seeing a 40 percent increase in the number of families coming in and asking for help,” she said. “Most of them are coming in for the first time.”

Iron Gate is in conversation with First Baptist up the street and we have a meeting next week with the Food Bank. Iron Gate is searching for a solution to the logistical problem and the high demand for food, but it’s tough to solve.

Hopefully you also saw the “Tulsa World” front page story today, July 27, about the worst states in the nation for child well being. Oklahoma is near the bottom—number 44. The article includes two photos of children eating at Iron Gate. The state now has 23 percent of our children living in poverty. “It is tragic beyond words that Oklahoma children are so vulnerable,” said Desiree Doherty, executive director of Tulsa’s Parent Child Center.[we have posted a link to the story on our facebook page in case you missed it]

You may not have seen the front page story in today’s “USA Today” about the national housing crisis (last year evictions were up 127 percent to 191,000) and job losses are the worst since statistics have been kept (8.5 million jobs vanished in 2009.)

What this means to Iron Gate is that we continue to have more demand for food help than ever. We don’t see an end in sight.

Example: Today, two young mothers—sisters—came in for emergency grocery bags (not the boxes from the Food Bank.) Both recently lost their jobs. Both have children and all moved in with their parents, who were already caring for young grand children. Now the family totals 15 living in one house and with no food. The sisters were frightened and embarrassed to ask for help and told us they have never been in this situation before. We cannot solve their housing or employment problems, but we could scratch together food from our pantry for them.

The eight member band is on tour through Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri performing for homeless and working poor. “We perform at homeless shelters, soup kitchens, rescue missions and anywhere else the homeless gather for physical and mental sustenance,” said Laurie Schwab, the band’s leader, vocalist and keyboardist.

The group says it does not “preach, pound or humiliate” its audiences. “Our music and humor seek to bring some calm and peace and memories of better, earlier times to people who have to be constantly guard and on the edge of survival.”

Band members range in age from 41 to 70. They are Episcopalian, Roman Catholic, southern Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist and “undecided.” One is a brain tumor survivor, one a convicted felon, one formerly homeless.

The band accepts donations but are funded primarily out of their own pockets. They use their own cars and vans to transport their instruments and sound equipment.

Iron Gate is a soup kitchen and food pantry in downtown Tulsa. It was started 26 years ago by parishioners of Trinity Episcopal Church who made sandwiches for the downtown homeless. The food was handed out in the church’s cloister garden which had a decorative iron gate.

The word quickly spread: If you’re hungry, go to the church with the iron gate. The name stuck.

The organization is still located in the basement of Trinity, but it has grown into a separate 501 ( c ) (3) nonprofit organization.

Our mission is simple: We feed people.

We feed anyone who comes to us, which indicates they are hungry. We have no identification requirements; we offer no educational or religious programs. We serve a hot, nutritious meal 8:30-10:30 a.m. every day of the year (10 a.m. on weekends and holidays.) We distribute grocery bags every week.

Last year 146,000 people came through our soup kitchen line. Last year, we distributed 5,200 grocery bags.

We call the people who eat with us our guests, because we invite them. Our philosophy is that we are all guests on this earth and that guests treat one another with courtesy, kindness and respect. We work to make sure that Iron Gate’s dining room is a friendly and welcoming place where guests can relax, visit with one another and escape the pressures awaiting them outside.

Our mission is simple: We feed people. Sadly, it’s a big job getting bigger.

• Last week, we served 2,813 people.
• Yesterday, we served more than 500. (Mid month, our numbers increase as people run out of food stamps and/or their monthly disability checks.)
• Now that school is out, we have more children coming to eat with us.
• In this depressed economy, we continue to see more families with children—often newly unemployed families. Sometimes, recently evicted families—young couples squatting in abandoned buildings, women and children staying in shelters.

Luckily, food help has arrived for the summer.

As reported in the Tulsa World, the Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma has received a $2 million federal grant for supplemental food boxes for families. Iron Gate is one of the recipients.

Every week through September we will receive 100 food boxes and 50 household boxes (soap, toilet paper, etc). The guidelines are that these boxes are to augment the emergency grocery bags we already distribute and that the boxes go only to families with children. We began distributing the boxes June 18.

One of Iron Gate’s new initiatives is to get more food to kids. We have received grants to start a Kids’ Pantry at Iron Gate that is stocked with kid-friendly food. Every child who comes to eat with us receives a plastic bag of kid snacks and a small grocery bag of kid-friendly food.

We changed our grocery distribution schedule from once a week (Fridays) to twice a week (Fridays and Saturdays) so we can be more accessible for working parents.

We distributed fliers about this distribution schedule and the supplemental food boxes to Emergency Infant Services, Catholic Charities, Indian Health Care Resource Center, Veterans Association, Baptist Caring Center, HOPE and the Salvation Army.

Because of these efforts, we have seen a substantial increase in the number of families with children coming to get the food available for them.

The supplemental food box project dovetails perfectly with our interests in getting more food to families in need (especially families with small children) and collaborating with other social service agencies.

Iron Gate’s kitchen is known for producing delicious food. Come see for yourself. Stop by some morning and eat with us.

We are almost at 1200 facebook friends. Help us make our goal and invite your friends today. We would like to be over 1500 by the end of summer. If everyone just got one friend to join, we would beat our goal!

Beef! It’s what’s for dinner. Bea Hidy, donated an entire steer (435 lbs) to Iron Gate. She said she read in an Iron Gate newsletter that chef Debra Dixon, “was praying for meat.” She and son Joe Hidy, president of Triad Bank, own Pioneer Ranch. (A picture has been posted in our pictures section.)

Lindberg Elementary School has done a food drive and raised 432 lbs of food for us in their food drive.

Our Community Voice Mail system, in collaboration with the Day Center, is going very well. We signed up more people for the phone service the first week than other agencies do in a month, we’re told. Iron Gate worked with the Day Center for the Homeless to complete preparations to have Community Voice Mail (at no charge) for our guests. This will alleviate the phone problems we have for the guests who cannot current receive return calls at our facility. Sign up and training will begin for the guests next week.

The recent big story on the front page of the Tulsa World, “Veggies for the Needy,” is about the vegetable garden St. John’s Episcopal Church is growing for Iron Gate. When Rev. Susanne Methven brought the first basket of produce to us last week, the story says, a homeless man helped her carry it in. He saw a green pepper in the basket and asked if he could have it. “Of course,” she said. “It tastes like home,” he said. (We have posted a link to the story on our facebook page.)

Recently, a well-dressed woman came into our offices to ask for a grocery bag. She was nervous, frightened and very fragile. She had left a difficult marriage with only the clothes she wore. She was staying with a friend but intended to find a job. She was in recovery—seven days sober—and had come from the AA meeting upstairs. We made her a grocery bag. Tanya talked with her and praised her for her seven days and she left smiling and looking stronger and happier. “It’s hard to handle crisis when you’re hungry,” she said.

Word of mouth – one of our guests today is just out of prison and told me how well known we are there. “Iron Gate is talked about a lot,” he said. “Everyone knows it’s a good place to go. Everyone inside is grateful for the good work you do.”

Demographics of Guests: Big increase in numbers of 20 something guests this week. A notable exception was this man who ate with us today.

Next week, Hepatitis C and HIV testing will be done here by HOPE (Health, Outreach, Prevention, Education). Catholic Charities and the Veteran’s Association will also be here to be available for consultation with our guests.

1. We won the Excellence Award in the Community Health Services from the Oklahoma Center for Nonprofits, recognizing us for “exhibiting excellence in daily operations.” Picture from the event have been posted on our photo page of the Facebook Group.

2. The Food Bank has items not available since Hurricane Katrina and we have spent two days picking up food and stocking our pantries. We have food stacked everywhere.

3. There is a ranch which is donating a steer to Iron Gate has said the 500 lbs of beef will be delivered to us by the end of May. This makes the kitchen very happy.

4. The numbers of people coming to eat here daily continues to grow and grow. A few months ago we fed 350-400 people a day. Now it is not unusual for us to have 500-600 guests a day. And, more children. Young children. Today we had three kids in strollers, a five-day-old baby and other small children. Remember, only children not in school come through the soup kitchen weekdays. This is another reason we are beefing up the food we serve on weekends, when hungry children and working parents are available to eat with us.

Our Downtown Friends: Arnie's Bar and Blue Dome Diner joined forces in a St. Patrick's Day fund raiser for Iron Gate.

This week proprietors of Arnie's Chris and JoAnn Armstrong, and Blue Dome's Jennifer and Brian Pruitt presented checks totaling $4,000 to the downtown soup kitchen. [We posted a picture on our facebook page of them]

We're making plans to work together with more fund raisers and soup kitchen volunteers from the two businesses.

Help us thank these generous and caring businesses by frequenting their establishments.

The New Hope youth doing the food drive were students in fifth through ninth grades. They collected 299 food items and $50 in cash. [We posted a picture on our facebook page of them]

Ernest Dixon, Iron Gate's operations manager, is flanked by Booker T students Joe and Sam Gawey who helped serve the special Easter Sunday meal.

It was a total volunteer effort--prepared and served by volunteers. The Easter meal is a holiday tradition organized and funded by volunteers Dale and Beverly Wissen. [We posted a picture on our facebook page of them]

We are happily awash in eggs for Easter. Responding to our request, Trinity parishioners have brought fresh eggs, the Food Bank has given us lots of eggs, and 10-year-old Lauren Hughes (a student at St. Pius Catholic School) went door to door in her neighborhood soliciting eggs for Iron Gate—she collected 48 eggs for us. The Iron Gate kitchen is serving eggs hand over fist, even making colored, hard boiled eggs for Saturday’s guests.

Our garden is bright with newly planted pansies, thanks to Clayton and Pat Woodrum and St. John’s Episcopal Church.

Dale and Beverly Wissen and friends will again cook Easter breakfast for the guests (and fund the cost of the meal themselves.) This is a lovely and generous tradition for the Wissens.

Caralyn Foulks made exquisite felt Easter baskets for the children of Iron Gate, each filled with toys, candy and head pieces (bunny ears and flower petals). We have added pictures of the lovely Easter baskets on our facebook page.

Philanthropist Alan Shawn Feinstein will once again divide $1 Million among anti-hunger agencies nationwide during March and April. Any donations made to Iron Gate during March and April will qualify towards this match if you write Feinstein on the memo or in the description. You can even donate online at www.irongatetulsa.org and write Feinstein in the comments.

Regular Wednesday volunteer Priscilla Tate brought her granddaughter Anna Pops with her to volunteer. Anna is visiting from Boston. We posted pictures on our facebook page, check them out.

From volunteer Chris Owen:
"My kids and I volunteered at Iron Gate a few weeks ago and it was a really good experience. Thanks for accommodating volunteers the way you do. I suspect it would be easier to let a handful of regulars do the job rather than rotating new people in all the time, but you're doing a good thing by giving people an opportunity to serve." Chris was joined by Emily and twins Gunnar and Connor.

Iron Gate Volunteer Coordinator Deborah Dixon had several new volunteers visit Iron Gate to help over Spring Break. Volunteer included Believer's Church Youth Group, First Baptist Church, and a mission group from St. Crispin's. Sts. Peter & Paul eighth graders volunteered the Friday before Spring Break. Our youngest volunteers were Michael & Simone. We posted pictures on our facebook page, check them out.

Our guests would especially appreciate fresh eggs for Easter. Please bring them to Iron Gate at 501 S. Cincinnati Avenue, Tulsa.

Almost 700 hungry and homeless came to eat soul food at Iron Gate today (Feb. 16), celebrating Black Heritage Month.

Iron Gate will serve soul food to the homeless and hungry Tuesday, Feb. 16, in recognition of Black History Month. The menu will include smothered chicken with rice, cracklin' cornbread, steamed cabbage and buttermilk pie.

In her nine years as cook for the soup kitchen, chef Debra Dixon has prepared 1,569,000 meals for Iron Gate. She has cooked special menus for Thanksgiving, Christmas and traditional Indian food for Native American Month. This is her first soul food menu.

In researching African American cuisine, she found the roots of soul food in American slavery. Often they created dishes from leftovers that their masters did not eat. They exchanged recipes verbally because slaves were prohibited from writing. Dixon, a black cook herself, says this is how soul food is still cooked—from memory and by taste. It's the way she often cooks, too, with recipes passed down in her family.

She and her soul food cooks, sisters from St. Luke Baptist Church, will begin cooking at 7 a.m. Tuesday. The meal will be served 8:30-10:30 a.m. by black celebrity servers including the Rev. John Vincent, Fellowship Christian Church; the Rev. Joseph Alsay, Trinity Episcopal Church; Ed Goodwin, Tulsa attorney; and E.L. Goodwin, Oklahoma Eagle publisher.
 

Osteopathic Founders Foundation. Iron Gate received a grant at the patron's party—a preview event of the Foundation's Winterset 2010. Other recipients are the Good Samaritan Health Services and Mental Health Association of Tulsa. This is the first major grant we have received form the Osteopathic Founders Foundation.

Tulsa Community Foundation. Today we received a grant to purchase food. This was part of the million dollar Tulsa Community Challenge announced in December. We are one of 35 local agencies benefitting from the successful challenge. Major donors to this grant were: Tulsa Community Foundation (Phil Lakin), AEP Foundation (Stuart Solomon), George Kaiser Family Foundation (George Kaiser, Amy Santee), Tulsa Area Untied Way (Mark Graham), Bank of Oklahoma (Stan Lybarger.)

Okla Center for Nonprofits. As you read in Tulsa World Feb. 4, 2010, (pg A-13), Iron Gate is one of eight finalists in the Oklahoma Nonprofit Excellence Awards contest. This finalist award brings us $5,000. If we win the next leg, we'll win $7,500. If we win the whole thing, the prize is $10,000.

News about hunger in America

As reported in today's "USA Today,"

• One in eight Americans—37 million people—received emergency food help last year. That's up 46% from 2005 (the last major survey.)
• One if five children—14 million kids—received food from soup kitchens and food pantries. That's up from 9 million in 2005.

These stats are from a report from Feeding America, a network of 203 nationwide food pantries. "This is a crisis," said Feeding America President Vicki Escarra.
Iron Gate participated in that survey and conducted interviews on site last year. As horrifying as the numbers are, we agree with Cindy Stevens from the local Food Bank that our regional numbers (see "Hunger in America" chart below) do not reflect the real increase all of us have seen in this area.

And as reported in Feb 2, 2010 "Tulsa World," Oklahoma has become the fourth hungriest state. Up from No. 8. That's from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The city of Tulsa has the 21st highest rate among the largest 100 U.S. metropolitan areas. Oklahoma City has the 12th highest rate. A report from the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index shows that more than 20 percent of Tulsans surveyed didn't have enough money to buy needed food at times last year.

We at Iron Gate help in two ways:
Our soup kitchen – open every day of the year, and
Our food pantry—distributing emergency grocery bags every week. Our food pantry is a direct way of getting food into children's homes. When school is in session, children cannot come eat at our soup kitchen weekdays, which is open 8:30-10:30 a.m. This is another reason we began the Kids' Pantry last year, stocking it with more kid-friendly food (fruit cups, fruit juice, small cereal boxes, etc.)