Each week on Mondays and Thursdays, 200 to 300 people will come to His Supper Table for either a hot sit-down meal or one to go.

LONG BEACH – Familiar faces, some never seen before, some young, some old, some with children, some without – all struggling to make ends meet on the Long Beach Peninsula.

This is the common thread which brings together a group averaging 200 to 300 people every Monday and Thursday night at His Supper Table’s “soup kitchen,” operated out of the Peninsula Church of the Nazarene, located at 13th Street and Pacific Highway in Long Beach.

But His Supper Table is much more than just a so-called soup kitchen. It’s a place where those in need know they can go twice a week for either a free sit-down dinner or a meal to go, regardless of race, creed, sex, lifestyle, residence, religion or other discriminatory considerations.

On the surface, it looks like any other “helping hand” operation, but dig a little deeper and it is apparent that His Supper Table paints a portrait of hunger on the Peninsula.

It paints the downside to the commercial fishing and logging industries, both of which have steadily declined since the early 90s.

It also paints what could be described as the dark side of other seasonal industries of the Peninsula, including tourism, which subsequently includes the lodging, food and retail industries of communities such as Chinook, Long Beach, Ilwaco, Seaview, Ocean Park, Oysterville and Nahcotta.

Every Monday and Thursday night people from all of these communities show up at His Supper Table. Some drive, while others rely on the Peninsula’s public transportation system.

Always present on these nights, either working in the kitchen or waiting just inside the door to greet people with a warm welcome is Mike Renfro, food administrator for His Supper Table.

Renfro has been a part of His Supper Table for the last several years, and perhaps more than any other person on the Peninsula, knows the faces of hunger.

According to Renfro, people come to His Supper Table for a variety of reasons. He said they come because they’re unemployed or because what they make at their minimum jobs just isn’t enough.

Renfro said for many people, ending up on the short end of the stick on the Peninsula came about due to the unfulfilled expectations. He said many come here because they hear that there is year-round work, only to wind up hurting when the tourist season ends in late September.

Regardless of prior circumstance, Renfro said all the people who come to His Supper Table each week are now struggling to make a living on the Peninsula.

“These are all locals,” he said. “It is a mixed bag of lots. This thing involves people from all walks of life – from the very young to the very old. I get them all. I do. And there are no prerequisites; nobody looks into the parking lot to see what cars are out there.”

According to Renfro, a fair percentage of those who come to His Supper Table are regulars. He said the average age range of those who come for a meal at His Supper Table is between 28 and 48, with a 50/50 split between males and females.

On the average Monday or Thursday night, there are 15 volunteers working at His Supper Table in the kitchen and dining room, serving between 230 and 626 meals each night. Some eat their meals in the dining room at large tables, while many get a take-out meal.

The bulk of food that is donated to His Supper Table comes from Northwest Harvest, which is a Feed the Hungry Program out of Seattle. According to Renfro, he and Jeremiah Brotten drive up to Seattle twice a month to pick up the food at Northwest Harvest.

“I drive up and he drives back,” said Renfro. “We take a 1984 Ford Econovan that belongs to His Supper Table. We’re wearing this one out fast, so if you know someone who has another one ….”

According to Renfro, funding to run His Supper Table comes primarily from the His Supper Table Thrift Store in Long Beach, which he said has given the meal program “nine lives” since the program started almost five years ago.

Renfro said there are no peak times of the year for the number of meals served, but said it is a little slower in the summer when people are able to get seasonal work. He said the fluctuations which occur are at different times of the month and are dependent on the cycles of public assistance such as Welfare, Social Security or unemployment.

It was on the topic of lack of employment diversity on the Peninsula where Renfro expressed some frustration, and said of public assistance and minimum wage jobs, “it isn’t any way to make a living.”

Renfro said that many who come for a free meal each week have significant others, which says to him that even with two incomes, people are still struggling to make ends meet on the Peninsula.

“This is no answer,” said Renfro, of the services provided by His Supper Table. “There is no industry here or large company or mill. Fishing and logging have ‘punied’ out. There is just tourism-related, low-paying work and that’s the way it is for so many people. They just can’t make ends meet. The average rent is $500, and at $7 an hour that just doesn’t stretch that far.”

According to Renfro, the number of people coming to His Supper Table has been increasing since the first meal was served in June 1998, with no relief in site. He said the biggest problem he hears from those who come for a meal each week is that it is getting harder and harder to get work on the Peninsula.

“Honest to God, I do believe we make a big difference in this community,” said Renfro. “I don’t just mean Long Beach. I’m talking about 28 miles of the Peninsula.”

His Supper Table is supported, in part via food donations from local businesses such as Sid’s IGA Market and Cottage Bakery, as well as a coalition of area churches, which provide the bulk of the 60 to 75 volunteers for the free meal program.

Renfro said His Supper Table has a close relationship with local food banks on the Peninsula, including the ReachOut Food Bank, Chinook Food Bank and St. Vincent de Paul Food Bank in Ilwaco.

According to recent Center of Hunger and Poverty data from annual Census Bureau surveys, on average, 5 percent of Washington households and 6 percent of Oregon households went hungry between 1998 and 2000. What this data said was that Washington ranks second in the nation for hunger, only after Oregon.

The report went on to say that the number of people needing emergency food has increased fastest in rural Washington areas, where isolation, lack of transportation and a bad job market make the problem worse. The report stated that many Washington counties haven’t found ways to replace the logging, mining or fishing that once supplied living-wage jobs.