Gathered around a lake,
sharing a table, serving
a whole neighborhood
The Matthew Anastacio Foundation, Inc welcomes every neighbor to a long and cheerful picnic beside a northern Idaho lake. For fifteen years our volunteers have set a wide table where a hot supper, a steady mentor, a warm coat, and a listening ear are never more than a few steps away. We gather people together in Coeur D Alene and far beyond the shoreline, and there is always room for one more chair.
Six ways we sit down beside our neighbors
Every program is planned the way a picnic is planned: with a table set wide, food enough for everyone, and a place saved for anyone who walks up the trail. The pages below walk you through the six ways we sit down beside our neighbors, month after month, season after season.
Community Meal Programs
On Tuesday and Saturday evenings we open a warm dining hall on the lakeshore where hot seasonal suppers are served in generous portions to anyone who arrives. Volunteer cooks, local farms, and neighborhood bakers keep the menu fresh and hearty through every month of the year. Diners sit at long shared tables so that no one finishes a meal alone, and families with young children are seated first whenever the room is busy. Weights are never cast upon who can pay because no one is ever asked to pay at all.
Youth Mentorship Circles
Young people in our community are matched with patient adult mentors who meet them weekly in small circles by the water. Together they read, hike the shoreline trail, practice skills for the job market, and simply learn to listen well. Every circle keeps its numbers low so that each young person is truly heard. Mentors commit to a full season and stay connected through busy and quiet weeks alike, building trust that lasts far beyond the program year.
Emergency Family Assistance
When a house fire, a sudden illness, or an unexpected layoff throws a household off balance, we are ready to help without long delays or endless paperwork. Families can receive modest grants for rent, fuel, groceries, and utility bills while our volunteer coordinators quietly connect them to partner agencies. No urgent request is turned away for want of a meeting; we ask only for a short conversation so we can direct help wisely and with care and respect for each family in its own hard season.
Learning Supply Drives
Before every school term we collect backpacks, notebooks, pencils, calculators, and winter coats and hand them out free during our August and January gatherings. Teachers tell us exactly which supplies run short each year, and we spend donated dollars on those precise items rather than generic ones. Students leave our tent with a full kit and a handmade card from a neighbor, so that the first day of school starts with confidence on both shoulders.
Senior Companionship Visits
Many older neighbors live near the lake but still feel far from company. Our volunteers make regular home visits, share a meal or a puzzle, run small essential errands, and check in by phone each week. On pleasant afternoons we wheel or walk a small group down to the picnic shelter for lemonade and easy conversation. These visits are unhurried and dependable, grounded in the simple belief that no season of life should be spent in isolation.
Grant Support for Local Projects
Beyond our own tables, we strengthen the whole neighborhood by awarding small grants to local groups with good ideas: school gardens, community choirs, feed banks, and shoreline cleanup crews. We review requests in plain language rather than complex forms, and we celebrate every funded project at our summer picnic so donors can see exactly where their gifts go. A modest grant here can launch a program that feeds the community for years.
We hold that a community is strongest when its tables are wide, its doors are open, and nobody eats, learns, or ages alone. We believe a shared meal is the oldest and truest form of neighborhood, and that a hand extended in a hard season is never wasted. Every plate we serve and every hand we hold is a small promise to keep gathering at the lake, in sunshine and under lantern light alike.
Come sit down with us
Whether you bring a dish, lend a hand, or simply pull up a chair, there is always room on the blanket. You can fill our meal hall on a Tuesday evening, join a mentorship circle, pack a school backpack, or visit an older neighbor on a quiet afternoon. Reach out and we will save you a place by the water, and we will be honored to welcome you home.
Contact our team