Sisters Of The Road

They welcomed me and fed me when I needed it most.
The cashier was this gorgeous young lady who was kind, generous, and positive to all despite the incessant flirting attempts from lonely homeless men. Her determination not to take offense and to see the humanity and the value of that humanity impressed me greatly.

What a beautiful concept for a vital community need. There are no easy answers to the issue of poverty and homelessness. Living on the coast, I am seeing more and more homeless folks who are in dire need. Like in all places, it runs the full spectrum: people down on their luck, mentally ill, drifters on the run, tweakers and drunks, scam artists, victims of domestic abuse that had to escape, etc. What I love about the concept for Sisters of the Road is that it gives value and a sense of worth to those who are in need. A true hand up rather than a hand out. Hopefully others will learn and model this for their own communities.
I just made a substantial donation and encourage you to do the same if this speaks to you.

Can’t complain about anything but the people who complain about Sisters of the Road.
Healthy and affordable meals for everyone.
If I every felt like an establishment was ever to promote «FOOD IS A RIGHT! NOT A PRIVILEGE!», I feel like Sisters promoted this ideal every day.
I hope the best to all the volunteers, staff, participants, and hungry people!

Sisters is a co-​op restaurant for people with low incomes or just down on their luck.
More cities should have places like this. Sisters was originally a refuge for down and out travelers, but as society changed it became a place to help anyone who was in need of help.
I discovered this place in 1979 after a moronic police officer arrested me and my boyfriend and impounded my car because we were traveling without our parents. My mother ordered them to release me, but I still spent days jumping though hoops to get my car back. We had little money and Sister’s provided good cheap meals between 65c and $ 1.50. The first meal was free.
When I returned to Portland in 30 years later to search for locations for our next art gallery, I stopped in just to show my adult children a place I had been once. A man named Larry immediate rushed over to greet us and see what help we needed.
I explained to him we were fine and «just looking.» He informed me everyone needed help at times and there was no shame as he shoved a handful of meal voucher’s into my hand. Then he insisted that we sit down for meal. I did not want to seem like a snob so I joined this very kind man. A waiter came to our table and took our order. A few minutes later he returned with very full plates of surprisingly good food.
While we ate, Larry told me he had been homeless and began volunteering part-​time so he could eat. That turned into a full time position as a cook and his life was getting back on track.
We were told if you volunteer for an hour you get $ 6 of vouchers which can be used towards meals or anything from their general store which had sock, hats, hygiene supplies etc. Meals only cost $ 1.25 so $ 6 of vouchers covered 3 square meals and extras like socks and warm clothes.
After eating we volunteered for an hour and each of us earned a handful of meal vouchers.
I thanked Larry for his kindness and upon our departure gave our massive pile of food vouchers to a homeless lady with a small baby.
I was so impressed with this place, a person who is in a dire situation can work for their meals and help others in the process, they can earn enough vouchers to afford to be charitable to others.
This is the only co-​opt restaurant I have ever seen but it seems like a great idea that could help restore dignity to people who are down on their luck.
I have eaten in hundreds of fine restaurants, but this little place in the Burnside area of Portland (skid row) will always be special to me. More cities should have co-​ops.

Lively, respectful atmosphere in the middle of downtown Portland. Truly delicious food, a nice communal setting, and great cookies when they have them. Love this place.

This place is amazing.
They offer warm, home-​cooked-​meal style food and coffee/​juice in a friendly environment to low-​income and frequently homeless folks. They bring the food to you and they pick up after you. It’s a real-​life restaurant with charm and smiles and a lot of love. They also get a lot of their food locally and try to be sustainable. They have a very explicit non-​violence policy and they run off of a barter model as well as a pay model. They are queer friendly and have a gender-​neutral bathroom. All of these aspects are important.
On their website, they state the following and I certainly felt this while there the other day: «We should all have the opportunity to do for ourselves and contribute to our community. At Sisters we don’t do for others what people can do for themselves and also recognize that we can work together for a just society in ways that respect our humanity. This is community organizing, rather than a charity approach.»
But Sisters of the Road is not just a café, they also provide resources, have events, etc.
To the guy that said that it has a «‘thugs hanging out’ atmosphere,» i ask you to question where your assumptions are coming from. I too perceived this to be riff raff but while accompanying a «client» in there the other day, what I perceived as riff raff was not.

Sisters of the Road has been supporting community driven solutions to the calamities of homelessness and poverty, in an atmosphere of gentle personalism and nonviolence since 1979.
The new Personalist Center (PC) opened in July 2007 after two years of planning by the Café’s customers and staff, the Personalist Center provides an indoor waiting area for the Café, increased barter work opportunities especially for people with disabilities, a place to receive U.S. mail, make a phone call and have a hot cup of coffee early in the morning.
The Personalist Center (PC) has become a «hub» for the community as many participate regularly in knitting circles, nonviolence trainings, arts and craft days, monthly movie afternoons, a police rights training, a holiday toy-​drive, and more.
Sisters offers hope and inspiration to all who visit.

the best place in the world. thank you.

Café serves people who can’t afford to go out
What a great concept and so worth promoting. This is an extremely tasty and cheap café, designed to serve low-​income people. If you can’t afford to pay for meals, you can work in exchange for food. People volunteer their time, cooking and other talents to contribute to this overall program. They also take food stamps.