Author: shobistable

Feed My Sheep

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April Newsletter

  • Feed My Sheep
  • 5K-As-You-Can!
  • Grant Supporters
  • A Note From the Board

Feed My Sheep

I recently had the opportunity to preach on John 21 for my uncle’s church in Washington State.  I have loved this passage throughout my time in kitchen-based ministry.  For those of you who need a memory-jog … it’s the abundant fishing and  “feed my sheep” story.  After the resurrection, and after Jesus has appeared a couple times very mysteriously, the disciples go out fishing and get nothing.  Jesus tells them to fish on the other side, they get a ton of fish, then eat breakfast with Jesus on the beach.  During breakfast conversation, Jesus asks Peter “Do you love me?” Each time Peter says, “You know I do”, Jesus says, “Feed my sheep.”  What a privilege that those of us who work in big kitchens get to do this literally!  But getting to make food for others aside, I am also struck at how this work goes both ways.  We’ve been serving lunch in Frogtown and Midway for nearly a year now, and we’ve gotten to know some beautiful people.  People who are very committed to their neighborhoods.  People who have shared some of their joys, sorrows, and even daily humdrum with us.  Even when someone doesn’t know much English and we don’t know their language, we’ve come up with a way to communicate and know each other a little bit.  Just as we offer lunch from the truck in the warm weather and the folding table in the cold, we’ve been humbled by people’s generosity and hospitality to us all year long.  It seems to me that Jesus forgot to add that when we feed the sheep, we in turn become the sheep that are fed. 

5K As-You-Can

Shobi’s Table is out to FRIENDRaise!  We want more folks to know about Shobi’s Table, and how they can participate as guests at lunch, volunteers and financial supporters.  So, we’re asking YOU to invite a friend or two who doesn’t know about Shobi’s Table yet, and participate in our 5K-As-You-Can!  Together, you can walk, run, ride your bike, push a wheelchair, cartwheel… while you tell them about how good it is to be a part of the Shobi’s Table community.  While you can do your 5K anytime during May 16-22, if you come to the Gloria Dei parking lot on May 22nd, you can pick up a delicious Shobi’s Table lunch and then do a 5K in the park area nearby.  It’s a great time to catch up with each other in a safe, outdoor area, and get out to move your body and enjoy God’s good creation.  
Register here at https://shobistable.org/5k-as-you-can/

Truck Update

Our beloved big blue truck will be back in action soon!  It spent the winter months up in a cozy outbuilding tucked in alongside big equipment at a friend’s farm.  It is currently in the shop getting the serving window fixed, and will be back on the road within a week or two.  We’re really looking forward to having Big Blue back!  

Grant Support! 

Did you know that Shobi’s Table is supported not only by your generous donations, but by grants from other organizations? We are so grateful to these communities for supporting the work needed to make our pay-as-you-can cafe run smoothly and keep growing!

  • ELCA Hunger
  • Elim Scandia Foundation 
  • Abiding Savior Mission Endowment Fund 
  • Incarnation Lutheran Church Budding Idea Grants
  • University Lutheran Church of Hope – Reveal Hope Capital Campaign

A Note from the Board 

We sing – 

Give us our daily bread. Give us our daily bread. Give us our daily bread.

May we be satisfied.

May we be satisfied. May we be satisfied. May we be satisfied.
With only what we need.

Never be satisfied. Never be satisfied. Never be satisfied.
If any be denied.

Five thousand will be fed.Five thousand will be fed. Five thousand will be fed.
Trusting there be enough.

Give us our daily bread. May we be satisfied…

We pray – “Give us our daily bread.” We do so because we know we are connected. My success, my delight, my satisfaction with life is dependent upon your success.  Unless you have your daily bread alongside me, I cannot fully enjoy mine.

We know – each of us needs to have bread daily. We cannot survive, we cannot live, we cannot thrive without daily sustenance. Our bread may take different forms and shapes, but we are all in need of it. Without it, we will wither and die.

We trust – today we feed 26. Tomorrow there may be 14. Perhaps next week, we will feed 52.  Daily, we provide as we also receive what is provided to each of us. We do this in community, and we gain an even different form of daily bread by doing so. We delight in our ability to share, and to be a part of the five thousands.

This is the mission of Shobi’s Table: to ensure that all have daily bread. And that our bread is good and life-sustaining. I am pleased to support Shobi’s Table, and am happy to be part of the Board of Directors. My work with Shobi’s Table is a portion of my own daily bread.

Sandy Aslaksen

“Words and music by Bret Hesla. © 2003 Bret Hesla.  All rights reserved. Used by permission. Licensed via OneLicense.net,Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.” To hear Bret sing this song, use this link:  Give Us Our Daily Bread

Dignity on the Menu

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At Shobi’s Table we take pride in the menus we create.  Lately I’ve been particularly tickled about the sauces we’ve done for our sandwiches and the dressings we’ve had for our salads.  Last week, when I told Taylor that we had apples, currants and sunflower seeds to top our salads, she whipped up a delightful Apple Maple Vinaigrette to complement it.  The week before, she made a rich and vibrant purple vinaigrette with fresh blueberries.  Two weeks ago we served a chicken and rice wrap made topped with a creamy citrus-y hot sauce – the hot sauce we blended in-house!  From scratch and delicious, these menus spring up a well of emotions for me – pride, humility and joy.  Pride – that we are serving quality meals that you could find at a nice restaurant. Humility – that we have the privilege of creating food that comes from a long line of others (farmers, distributors, grocery workers, etc.), and ultimately the Creator, Godself! (Neither Taylor nor I could take credit for those blueberries… that is divine inspiration!)  And Joy – that we get to serve this food from God to anyone, without price! Joy that everyone who comes can have the dignity of eating a beautiful, delicious, nutritious meal.  Dignity in having access to God’s feast.  So, come – we might not always have milk or wine (see Isaiah 55), but we do get to live out the good news of a beautiful meal for anyone, without price.  

– Deacon Kari Alice Olsen

5K-As-You-Can : May 22nd – Save the Date! 


Get ready for the Shobi’s Table spring event – the 5K-As-You-Can!  We’re inviting you to invite a friend you’ve already got, make a new friend, or even build a team, and get outside together to walk, run, ride, or however you like to move – for Shobi’s Table! We’re all about coming together around one table to eat delicious, nutritious food that feeds the body as well as the soul. Once you’ve all been fed, what better thing to do than to get those bodies outside to revel in God’s good creation and get to know one another even better.


The week of May 16-22, you are invited to do a 5K at your own pace, however you love to move best, wherever you are. You can walk, run, ride your bike, do cartwheels, skip, push someone in a wheelchair or a stroller. You could do 1K a day for 5 days! You can go fast or slow. If a 5K is too much for your body, consider driving to a place you can see a vista that goes out for at least 5K. This 5K-As-You-Can is accessible to everyone! 


Wherever you do your 5K (from St Paul, Minnesota, Washington State, Tanzania or Cambodia!), take a picture and post it using the hashtags #5KAsYouCan and #ShobisTable.
On Saturday, May 22nd, those who are local to the St Paul area can gather (location TBD) for a pay-as-you-can lunch at the Shobi’s Table food truck, 5K routes available nearby. We’ll be there from 11am-2pm, so you can eat lunch before or after! We’ll have plenty of space to spread out.

Register here: 5K-As-You-Can  Whether you walk by yourself, with a friend or a team, each participant must fill out a registration form (parents and guardians, you can fill one out for your kids). Registration fee is pay-as-you-can (so you decide how much you want to give!) Registration fees $25/person and up come with a Shobi’s Table t-shirt (see one here)  


Let’s get outside together to build a deeper and broader community.   Connecting to others and spreading the good news of a pay-as-you-can meal, we can ensure that Shobi’s Table will continue to join in God’s work – setting the table where all may be fed in body and soul.

Note from the Board

March greetings to friends and supporters of Shobi’s Table. In my mind, I think of March as the last month of Winter. I am a lover of Winter but the smell of Spring is always a hopeful sign for rebirth and new life. As I write from a town on the Columbia Gorge in Oregon where my son and family live, the crocus are appearing and it reminds me of new birth and hopefulness.

This is exactly what Shobi’s Table ministry has at its core, providing nutritious food alongside hospitality that nourishes life, giving a sense of hope. Winter can add an extra challenge for serving in the outdoors. And for some of our guests we serve, the challenges of the Winter months can be significant. As Kari shared in last month’s newsletter, the cold weather brought a halt to serving for a couple of weeks (though helped with some catching up!), There is always the concern for where people can get food and housing, particularly for our unsheltered neighbors. Last summer my church allowed some unsheltered folks to use our covered patio for several months to get out of the elements. It really brought home to me the lack of affordable housing and food right here in our community and around the state. Without these basic needs, our community suffers as a whole. It has been part of my faith journey to learn more about the challenges facing those with less economic resources and to volunteer where I can.

As a new board member, it has been humbling to join in the community of Shobi’s Table, gratefully serving within an organization whose mission it is to provide food to all. Many thanks to everyone who supports this ministry.

Wishes for a joyful Spring!
Ann Beane

Resting and Rising Together

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         I recently had the opportunity to take a few days away.  It was lovely and oh-so-needed!  The rest and rejuvenation reminded me (yet again!) of our faith practice of Sabbath – setting aside time to marvel at what God has created, and when we rest, we surrender to that creative love that sustains and builds us up.  I was reminded that I can’t keep all the plates spinning all the time, after all – they are God’s plates, and God is not only a wicked-good plate spinner, but a plate creator and knows especially when to put the plates down and give it a rest.   
         Shobi’s Table just took a couple weeks off from lunch service, and did some administrative work inside.  The first week was because it was so darn cold!  The second was due to realizing we had a lot of paperwork to get done, and now was the time to do it.  While I know it wasn’t actually a Sabbath (we were working!), it did cross my mind that it was a decision to set time aside for a different thing.   I knew that we didn’t have the capacity to finish everything we needed to finish on top of our regular lunch service, and taking two cold weeks off when our numbers have been lower seemed like a good compromise. It was a move of trust, that God was still going to provide where there was need, and that we could take time now to tend to what would make for an even better spring and summer.   
         Bread is often the metaphor I use when I think of rest.  After flour, water, yeast and salt is kneaded and stretched into a strong dough, it must be left to rest.  As it rests, the “muscles” of gluten that have been built up, relax and allow the mass to catch the gas emitted from the yeast, and rise tall and strong.  If the dough were just continually kneaded without this rest, the bread would be dense and flat – nothing like the soft, chewy stuff we love to slather butter on and build sandwiches with.  To be our best, risen, strong selves – we have to take a break.  We have to rest.  We have to remember who is the agent behind our rising – God.  
While you’re taking a break to read this, let me show you ways that God is strengthening and rising within Shobi’s Table!  This spring we’re planning on adding a third serving day, and we need help from you to make that happen.  Consider the following ways to help support the growth and rising of Shobi’s Table.  You are part of our growing “glutinous” network that God is bringing forth! Take your time to rest, to consider, and then rise with us!

– Deacon Kari Alice Olsen

Ways to Support Shobi’s Table

Thrivent Action Team Grants to Support Shobi’s Table

Are you a Thrivent member?  Did you know that every Thrivent member has access to two (count them, TWO!) Action Team Grants of $250 each?  That’s $500 per member!  The applications are simple, straightforward, and the money can go to great causes – such as Shobi’s Table!  We can give you all the information you need to fill out the application and even help you fill out the reports afterwards.  


Not a Thrivent member? No problem! If you sign up to be an Associate Member for $20, you can have access to two Action Team Grants too! Your $20 could turn into $500 for Shobi’s Table (and/or other excellent missional projects!)


Want more info? Check out the Thrivent website (Thrivent Action Teams) 

 and/or email shobistable@gmail.com and we’ll help get you set up! 

Wish List

Did you know that Shobi’s Table has a Wish List?  It’s a great, tangible way to help support this pay-as-you-can cafe ministry!  We rent commercial space at Abundance Kitchen from the wonderful folks at Christ on Capitol Hill.  Within that space, we’re always cooking up a storm, and are often looking for items to make our work more efficient, safe and a great volunteer experience! (You’ll see we’re looking for a commercial food processor… anyone?? We’d love you forever! Cause we already do.)    We’re also looking for folks to donate compostable to-go materials so we can keep our commitment to being excellent environmental stewards.  


Our website has all the info you’ll need – where to purchase things, what we’re looking for, how many, etc.  Here’s the link:  Shobi’s Table WISH LIST

Become a Sustaining Supporter

We are so grateful for all the donations we’ve been getting this past year!  We wanted to make sure that  you knew that you could also sign up to be a Sustaining Supporter of Shobi’s Table.  When you do, we can get a better idea of how much is coming in and when, so that we can best budget and plan for this growing mobile cafe ministry.  Click on the link below and choose “Make this a recurring donation”.  
Donate Now to Shobi’s Table

Notes from the Board

Warm February greetings from the Shobi’s board of directors! I started on the board shortly after moving to the Twin Cities a year and half ago and work as a project manager for Lutheran World Relief in the fundraising department. Being on the board and attending regular meals has helped me learn about my neighbors and neighborhood. 

At my first board meeting just over a year ago there were just four of us. When we gathered a few weeks ago via Zoom there were nine of us. A year ago there we were serving twice a month and 1.25 staff. In the coming year, we will have 2.25 staff and are preparing to serve on 3 days/week. All this in the year of a global pandemic. 

I’ve had the privilege to attend many weekly meals and in all extremes of weather. I’ve witnessed how the gift of a warm cup of coffee on a blistering, cold day brings a welcome relief. Or a refreshing salad on a humid summer day is a simple joy. I’m thankful for these delicious, nutritious meals made with love. Each week it is a time to pause and be well fed. A place to gather and visit with friends while sharing a meal. 

What a gift to support and watch this growing ministry. 

That is why I decided to become a monthly donor. I want to help sustain this growth. I can’t wait to witness how increased staffing expands what Shobi’s table can do. I look forward to seeing another serving day and the people it can reach.

As we move towards Spring, I pray for the growth of this ministry and thank you for your continued support of our neighbors.

In Peace,

Lindsey Scheid