Once a month, four women get together for a girls’ night dinner.

This is no ordinary dinner, the women dine with a purpose. - they prepare 50 lunches for the homeless via the Park Boulevard Presbyterian Church in Oakland.

Marcia Bohan, Karen Sharkey, Barbara Arbunich and Marilyn Blake have been feeding the homeless in the Bay Area for 20 years. They provide a well balanced, healthy and nutritious brown bag lunch, that they fund themselves. The cost of the meals average about $60 a month and the women take turns hosting the lunch preparation at each of their homes and delivering the brown bag lunches to the church.

Feeding the local homeless population provides these women with a sense of gratitude and thanks, while generously contributing to humanity. One of the women has been unemployed for more than three years, but has maintained her commitment to providing the monthly lunches.

This is dinner with a purpose. We hope that this idea will catch on and ripple throughout Oakland. The next time you plan a dinner party, remember those less fortunate and create brown bags to donate.

If you’d like to join the efforts of these women and contribute funds to help feed the homeless, please contact karensharkey@sbcglobal.net.

Bon Appetite!