All You Need is Love (and Food)… Again

Second-annual event will raise money and canned goods for the homeless. A splendid time is guaranteed for all.

Last year’s All You Need is Love (And Food) event went so well, organizers decided to do it again. Dozens of Cleveland-area musicians will take the stage at the Lakewood Masonic Temple to perform music of the Beatles, from 7 to 10 p.m. Saturday — presented by the Trinity Lakewood Community Outreach organization. The Lakewood organization provides hundreds of hot meals, a produce distribution (distributing about 15,000 pounds of food in the summer), community gardens and community-based health and wellness programs to Lakewood’s neediest residents. “We’re all coming together for hunger relief,” said event organizer and TLCO advisory committee member Jason Weiner. “It’s a theme for the kind of community that we all want to be a part of.”  …

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Soul Food Event Feeds the Hungry (And the Soul)

Third-annual event slated for Saturday at the Lake Erie Screw Factory.

Feed the hungry, feed the soul. That’s part of the idea behind the annual Soul Food event Saturday night in Lakewood. The other part of the plan is to have all kinds of fun. The third-annual fundraising event, "Soul Food: Feed the Hungry, Feed the Soul," is slated to take place from 6:30 to 11 p.m. at the Lake Erie Screw Factory.  In year’s past, guests stayed late and danced an after party. So, this year, Soul Food organizers sought to make it official by bringing in soul-rock band We the People to perform until 11 p.m. “We’re expecting a large crowd,” said organizer Jason Weiner. “We’re trying to capitalize on that and have a good time.” The cost is $10, but that covers quite a bit: food, drinks, live music and access to the live auction…

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Editor's Notebook

All You Need is Love (and Food)

Beatles-themed fundraiser set for Saturday night at the Lakewood Masonic Temple. A splendid time is guaranteed for all.

  Howard Moore never intended to be homeless. The 69-year-old Lakewood resident also never imagined that he’d wait in line for community meals.  Things started get tough for Moore in 2006, when his partner of 47 years died unexpectedly. He found himself in financial straits.  “I’ve never been so lonely in my life,” he remembers. “Being homeless and going to community meals can be a humiliating experience. It’s never something I could have imagined would have happened to me.”  Moore isn’t alone. He is one of hundreds of Lakewood residents who rely on community meals to get by. Moore is also among those who will benefit from this Saturday's All You Need is Love (and Food) event at the Lakewood Masonic Temple. All You Need is Love (and Food) …

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Top 10 Posts on Lakewood Patch in 2011

Ready for the quickest wrap up of most popular local news within a year? Take a look at the stories you most visited in 2011:

Surprised by this list? Let us know in the comments and add stories you think should have made it on the list in 2011.

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Lakewood Organization Distributes 5.5 Tons of Food Saturday

Produce distribution, hot meal and dental clinic serve hundreds despite declining unemployment.

Women in babushkas and hijabs and men in VFW hats peppered a line of hundreds of people Saturday at Trinity Lutheran Church for a hot meal, children’s dental clinic and produce distribution. Organizer Jason Weiner said Trinity Lakewood Community Outreach — the group he helped found, that puts on the monthly event — distributed more than 11,000 pounds of fresh produce to 214 households, reaching an estimated 1,000 people. “It’s nice to know that so many people are going to have fresh produce for Thanksgiving,” Weiner said. Unfortunately, that’s a luxury many Americans don’t have. In 2010, 48.8 million Americans lived in food-insecure households, meaning one or more members of a household didn’t have access to enough food for a healthy, …

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28 Days of Hot Meals for Needy Each Month Not Enough

Jason Weiner, who's been volunteering for 13 years: "If something’s not there that you think should be there, you can just do it."

For 17,905 Cuyahoga County residents in 2010, community service was a court-ordered punishment. For Lakewood’s Jason Weiner, it’s a way of life. “Between working and volunteering, I would say, all together I average between 50 and 60 hours a week,” said the 40-year-old father of two. Weiner’s biggest endeavor is a monthly hot meal and free produce distribution program he created four years ago, in collaboration with Trinity Lutheran Church of Lakewood and the Cleveland Food Bank, after noticing Lakewood residents had access to a hot meal only 28 days a month. “Twenty-eight days might sound like a lot,” he said. “But could you imagine yourself or your children not eating for three days every month?” After doing what any savvy charity worker…

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