Thank You for Making the Summer Dinner a Wild Success!
- matthewjager4
- Jul 25
- 2 min read
Updated: Jul 28

Between babbling fountains and heavenly hydrangeas, over 70 guests gathered for a beautiful evening celebrating fresh beginnings and prestigious ends over dinner last evening. Thank you to each and every one of you who joined us and made the first-ever Kindred Kitchen Summer Dinner such a memorable and successful night. What started as an experimental dinner concept has quickly become one of our favorite events that we have produced in recent years, and is just the first example of some of the new ideas we are developing in our agency.
We absolutely loved spending such a great time with you all, celebrating the sunset of our HopeWorks board as the formal merger between Housing Hope and HopeWorks finalizes. The impact and legacy of the board will be felt for years to come, and we are so thankful to the countless hours dedicated by each and every member over the years.
While it is sad to say goodbye, we were also very excited to finally introduce everyone to the completed culinary kitchen expansion at HopeWorks! Recently completed through the support of a grant from The Gates Foundation, this kitchen will allow HopeWorks Job Training to increase the capacity and quality of the culinary pathway for years to come. The space will also operate as overflow workspace for Kindred's booming catering operations! After so many years in the making, it was so great to finally give tours of the completed space to so many. Thank you to everyone who has supported the creation of this culinary kitchen! We are so excited to be able to offer such a great space for job training programs to our residents and participants of HopeWorks.
A special thank you is in order for the amazing staff from Kindred Kitchen and other departments across Housing Hope. Debuting a new event is never an easy task, but the way everyone has come together to make this event possible is humbling. Thank you to Ken Ballou for allowing the takeover of Kindred Kitchen for the day, and all of the help preparing the menu for the evening. Thank you to Wells Nursery for helping transform Kindred into a proper garden. Thank you to our staff and volunteers for serving food and drink throughout the night. Thank you to Ted Lombard for providing such beautiful melodies and to Sgt Wallace for being on duty throughout the evening. Thank you to our speakers, Kathryn Opina, Nick Wells, Cody Cadden, Rachel Downes, and Joan Penney. And last but not least, thank you once again to our attendees!
Want to see more photos from the event? Check this page next week for the complete collection!