08/07/2026
Dear Spokane, I’m so sorry we’ve been so quiet over the past few days!
Less than 24 hours after the fires began, I left for a planned vacation across the pond. It was so tough leaving, and every day I’ve been thinking about how and when we can best show up for our community.
While I’m trying to be here in the moment, formulating a plan is probably the only way I’m going to be able to balance these two worlds.
Last year our $3 dinners turned into free dinners because Spokane showed up in such a big way. This photo is from one of those days, delivering casseroles around town. I’d love to bring something like that back for displaced families and frontline workers.
We’re trying to be realistic about our bandwidth. We ran those dinners during fall and winter when business was slower. Right now we’re in the middle of our busy season, and I don’t want to burn out our staff when we still have to get through our August events.
My main focus is the second wave. The families, frontline crews, animal shelters, and our community are still going to need support weeks from now.
Even though I’m 4,500 miles away and working with an 8-hour time difference, I’m hoping we can figure out a direction over the next few days.
If you know of a specific need, an organization we should connect with, or have an idea for how we can help, I’d love to hear it. I’m especially interested in what Spokane may need in the coming weeks. I’m putting together a super short form to make it easy to send ideas my way and keep everything in one place. I’ll post a link in the comments by 8/8.
We have the ability to make quite a few things happen with our Hidden Bagel kitchen and Scoop truck, so maybe this time around we partner with another business or nonprofit to help with some of the logistics?
I’ll continue doing what I can from afar and making bagel and ice cream donations as needs come up until I get back to Spokane.
It has been absolutely heartbreaking to see it all unfold and feel so helpless, but also inspiring to see how much people are helping!
We love you, Spokane!
