09/30/2026
Thank you, Dan Pelle for the pictures and Megan Howard for her powerful and inspiring article written: "Shalom Ministries vacates building unsure of program's future" found in today's September 30, 2026, Spokesman -Review.
The following is Megan's article:
The Rev. Barbara Caviezel on Monday welcomes a gathering for the Shalom Ministries Dining with Dignity celebration of 32 years of providing “A Legacy of Care: A Future of Hope” at the Shalom Ministries’ Dining Room at Zeal Church in Spokane.
Organization faces barriers
The basement of the historic Central United Methodist Church on West Third Avenue is a shell of what it once was.
A little over a month ago, it modeled a school cafeteria, with a stage used as a clothing closet, canteen-style tables and a large, bustling kitchen. On Monday evening, two days before Shalom Ministries had to vacate the building, the stage was empty, the tables were gone and the kitchen sat unused as former board members and volunteers gathered for “A Legacy of Care: A Future of Hope.” The worship reflected on Shalom’s 32 years of service through its Dining with Dignity meal program, which ended Aug. 20 after the building’s new owners, Zeal Church, declined to renew Shalom’s lease.
Dining with Dignity offered free breakfast almost every weekday, serving 84,000 meals last year. Shalom was thought of by many as the only no-barrier dining program in Spokane. It only required diners to leave drug activity outside and to be respectful. The location also operated as an outreach service hub, with volunteers from CHAS, Frontier Behavioral Health, the Washington State University School of Medicine and others. People could receive a hot meal, medical care and clean clothing in the hour the basement was open.
Members of the ministry hope to bring the meal service back in some capacity, with the long -term goal being to bring back sit -down meals, board President Dexter Phillips said. Shalom’s board is in conversations to find a new location. It’s focused on downtown, he said, because that is where the people helped reside. The organization has found a commercial kitchen to operate out of, but a space to serve meals is “hard to come by.”
A big barrier for Shalom is money. It relies on private donations and money raised through its fundraisers to pay rent, buy food and pay its few employees. Donations have not increased since the closure, Phillips said, and the fall fundraiser has been postponed until the spring, when Shalom hopes to be serving community meals again. “Until we get serving again, it is hard to ask for donations,” Phillips said.
He does not know of any organizations filling the gap that Shalom left. Some people and organizations may be doing outreach services and handing out meals, but he said a big need for meals remains.
“The homeless population is hurting, but resilient,” he said.
The 32 years of care for the city’s poor came to an abrupt stop when Zeal Church leaders told Shalom it would not be renewing the organization’s lease.
Zeal Church bought the building in May. It is led by pastors Ray and Shantel Valdez, who are affiliated with the Texas-based Mercy Culture Church. The church did not respond to multiple attempts for comment.
On Aug. 23, three days after Shalom served its last meal in the basement, Ray Valdez took to the pulpit to explain why Zeal didn’t renew Shalom’s lease. He said it’s not because they hate homeless people or Shalom, but that feeding people isn’t the answer to homelessness in Spokane. He spoke about demonic spirits and said people who have walked the streets in Spokane understand his point.
“Food does not cast out devils of people,” he said.
Community members at Shalom’s service Monday night see their work feeding the homeless and poor differently from Zeal Church’s perspective. Kathy Barrick, a former pastor at Central United Methodist Church, said the ministry was about giving dignity back to community members who aren’t often treated with respect.
“We always treated folks as welcome guests,” she said. “Shalom has never thought of itself as a charity, helping the downtrodden, but rather a community of sharing, offering human love in the form of food and community.”
She’s watched Shalom struggle financially over the years. The ministry used to receive both federal and local funding assistance, Barrick said, but that stopped many years ago. Each time the ministry seemed on the verge of collapse, “God has always cleared a path to not only continue but to become stronger and to move forward.” She encouraged people to reach out and connect with the downtown homeless population in any way possible as Shalom looks for a new location.
"The blow of losing this space in which Shalom has always existed is certainly the most difficult challenge we have ever faced,” she said. “I pray that we can go forward.”
Other speakers, like board member Mike Connelly, shared Barrick’s optimism for the future of Shalom. The end of the lease at the historic Methodist church is a growth opportunity, not an end, he said.
“It’s a continuation and beginning, and I can tell you that I’m committed and will do everything that I can do to ensure that Shalom continues, that we feed and clothe and provide a community to those in our community that need it,” he said.
Shalom invites the community to its brainstorm meeting at 7 p.m. on Oct. 15 at Westminster United Church of Christ.
