By LAUREN L. DILLARD
Of the News-Register

The kitchen and dining room at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church don't quite match those of the now-defunct Bella CafŽ in Yamhill, where Sherry Vote last hung her chef's hat. But they suffice three times a week when she whips up hot meals for the needy.

"It's called a soup kitchen but it's really a dinner kitchen," Vote said. And business has been booming.

While it takes the coordinated efforts of many church members and community volunteers to keep the kitchen going, Vote has been heading things up of late in her capacity as operations manager. And co-workers feel the fare she dishes up goes a long way toward explaining the upsurge in traffic.

Meal counts have been running as much as four times higher. On a sustained basis, diners have typically been filling eight tables, up from four.

"It's turning into a monster," Vote said.

"It was an unexpected consequence of hiring a professional cook," said Mari McGovern, who heads the soup kitchen operation.

Vote prepares wholesome, nutritious meals from scratch. Her dinners always include some type of homemade bread, with a pasta or green salad and dessert.

She's served up everything from corn-bread pudding to baked al dente zucchini and scalloped potatoes with real cream. "Its almost like they are coming to their mother's house to eat," McGovern said of the kitchen's clientele.

Vote typically plans her meals no more than three days in advance, based on what's available. "It has to be almost an ad-lib thing sometimes," she said.

Vote also holds forth at the Dundee Bistro.

She said her soup kitchen work limits the number of hours she can devote to the toney Dundee eatery, but said she hasn't regretted it yet. "My heart tells me that's what I want to do right now," she said.

It broke Vote's heart when she and her co-owners had to shut down the Bella CafŽ.

"I've had to overcome a lot of hardship from that restaurant, and I still feel like I'm in the midst of it," she said. "I do feel for these people, because I myself have had to endure a lot of hardship."

St. Barnabas served more than 1,400 meals in June. It is averaging more than 100 diners per meal, three days a week.

Its mission is to serve the homeless, unemployed and working poor on a no-names-taken, no-questions-asked basis. It begins serving at 4 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and patrons tend to drift in throughout the serving period.

"When I go in," Vote said, "I just have faith that it will always work and it just always works."

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