Hello Supporters of Common Table:

We have some exciting news and wanted you to be the first to know! Yet first, we want to thank you for your support of Common Table. Whether you’ve enjoyed a meal, been a volunteer dishwasher, prep cook or server, received job training, listened to live music over a drink at the bar, or contributed financially, we thank you and ask you to continue to walk with us on our journey. It is the beautiful mix of people in all ages and phases of life that embodies our mission.

Now for the announcement! In the next week, news will break that after a long interim we have hired a new Executive Director to lead our unique nonprofit in the heart of downtown. Starting this week, long-time supporter Ron Werner Jr will hit the ground running in this new position.

Ron comes to us having been active in the Bend community for the last seven years. In that time, he has been integral in helping get organizations like Rise Up International and the Bend Youth Collective off the ground. As a staff member at Nativity Lutheran Church, he was part of the team that helped bring home NeighborImpact‘s Poverty Buster of the Year award and Jobs with Justice‘s Interfaith Organization of the Year award. He has helped launch community gardens and hopes to continue to push Common Table towards more local food sourcing. Passionate about community organizing, social enterprise, and the creative arts, Ron will be an enormous asset to the great work that is already happening at Common Table.

As we look towards the future, we invite you all to help welcome Ron with a gift to Common Table. Will you consider making a donation in honor of Ron and what his passion and experience will bring? Let’s raise this as a toast to the future!

Donations can be made online at www.CommonTable.net – just click on the PayPal button (scroll down and look to the right). All online donations are secure and tax deductible. If you prefer to write a check, we invite you to write “Welcome Ron” in the memo line and mail it to the restaurant at 150 NW Oregon Avenue, Bend, OR 97701. Better yet, come and make your donation in person at Common Table, enjoying a meal in the process because it is the presence of amazing people like you that make Common Table the special place it is. Your donation will enable us to continue to provide quality meals for all regardless of ability to pay and job training for the unemployed in our beautiful, heart-of-downtown space.

We hope you will join with us in welcoming Ron Werner as our Executive Director and that you catch our excitement in ushering in this next phase of Common Table’s growth as we live further into our mission to create a community sanctuary where all are welcomed and all are fed.

With Love,

The Common Table Steering Committee