Eugene weekly., July 13, 2023, Page 5, Image 5

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Originally started by Charles Smith, known in the
community as Brother Charlie, the Eugene Catholic
Worker began in 2013 by giving away oatmeal and coffee
once or twice a week at Fifth and Washington.
“When I moved to Eugene, I was just planning on volun-
teering here and there,” Brother Charlie says. “But I saw
a need for outreach, especially on the streets.”
Soon after Catholic Worker’s food delivery inception,
Brother Charlie collaborated with Zoll and started serv-
ing hot meals in addition to coffee and oatmeal four to
five times a week. After Brother Charlie retired in 2022
due to health reasons, the breakfast group affiliated
with a separate group feeding the unhoused, the Burrito
Brigade, taking on the name Breakfast Brigade.
According to Levsen, Breakfast Brigade serves around
917 hot meals and 649 lunches per month. Many of the
people who come through Levsen’s line tell her that the
Breakfast Brigade is their main source of food through-
out the week.
“I love these people,” says a regular attendee, Josh,
who did not give his last name out of fear of police retali-
ation. “These people make my week.”
Brother Charlie says about five years into the opera-
tion, the city started taking issue with the group. The
police told them to move to a less visible area in Wash-
ington Jefferson Park, so in 2018 the group relocated
to the north end of the park near the WJ Skatepark on
First and Washington. After the pandemic, resistance
from the city only increased.
Levsen says the list of demands from the city, especially
after the pandemic, got longer. “We were told to stop using
the trash cans in the park, so we placed cardboard over
the trash cans to pack in and out. We were told to not park
in the grass so we parked on the street. We were told we
can’t be under the overpass anymore because it’s parks
property, so we moved to the sidewalk,” Levsen says.
The group continued to comply with the city’s demands
until October 2022, when the Parks and Open Space
division said a valid permit was needed in order to serve
meals at Washington Jefferson Park. When the Break-
fast Brigade members asked the city how to apply for a
permit, they were told no such permit exists.
Kelly Shadwick, outreach manager for Parks and Open
Space wrote in a Feb. 10 email to Levsen, “The City does
not provide permits for any activities in Washington
Jefferson Park at this time.”
“It’s hard enough as a volunteer to do what we do, but
then to have to negotiate with the city just to let us help
people — it’s exhausting,” Levsen says.
The group had a permit from January 2021 to June
2022, but that was before the city spent $1.2 million
dollars on reconstruction for the park after it was used
as a temporary stay in place shelter for people experi-
encing homelessness during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The park re-opened in June.
After numerous emails back and forth between the
Breakfast Brigade and Shadwick, Parks and Open Space
offered the Breakfast Brigade a space at the Eugene
Municipal Court at 11th and Lincoln. But in early Decem-
ber 2022, the court said that wouldn’t work due to a lack
of “space and resources,” according to court administra-
tor Sarah Callegeri.
In the Feb. 10 email exchange, Shadwick wrote to
Levsen, “While we are supportive overall of your mission
and tremendous work, we are once again in a position of
needing to let you know that food distribution is not a
permitted activity in Washington Jefferson Park.”
Shadwick later said the city is concerned with liabil-
ity issues around safety as well as turf and landscaped
areas being damaged, and that the city does not provide
permits for any activities in Washington Jefferson Park.
“We don’t want to relocate,” Levsen says. “We want
to serve the people we have been serving for the past
10 years.”
McIver says the decision to not let Breakfast Brigade
remain at the park is complaint driven. “We get feedback
from people saying they would rather not use the park
because they don’t feel welcome or that they can only be
there if they are there for the food giveaway,” he says.
After the most recent encounter with Neighborhood
HAPPENING PEOPLE
Service Officers, the Breakfast Brigade is trying to either
get a permit that allows them to be at Washington Jeffer-
son or find a space near the park that lets them serve.
McIver says the city has had trouble helping the group
find a place for them to serve because, “We’re waiting for
the right people to be here at the right time to sit down
and find a solution because, as of right now, serving at
the park is not an allowable activity.”
This wouldn’t be the first time a city has tried to stop
an organization from feeding the homeless. Across the
country, city governments have cracked down on where
and when groups can provide such meals. In May, the
religious group Micah's Way sued the city of Santa Ana,
California, under the federal Religious Land Use and
Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 to continue feed-
ing the hungry. RLUIPA protects religious groups and
individuals from zoning and landmark laws that would
otherwise prohibit them from gathering.
After EW spoke with McIver, he reached out to Levsen
to let her know that while serving food in the park is not
allowed, “Burrito Brigade” will not be cited or arrested.
“City staff may continue to ask the group to modify
activities as necessary for safety, access or sanitation
concerns in the area,” he adds.
Levsen says she was dissatisfied by this response not
only because she fears that city staff will continue policing
them, but also because McIver misidentified the group
as “Burrito Brigade.”
Levsen and other members of the Breakfast Brigade
say they will continue to feed the homeless in the park
and plan to speak at the July 24 Eugene City Council
meeting.
Brother Charlie says he remains optimistic that the
Breakfast Brigade will persist. “It’s our obligation to take
care of our brothers and sisters no matter the conse-
quences,” he says. “We will be persecuted, as demon-
strated across the country, but I do believe the law is
on our side.” ■
For more on the work of Breakfast Brigade, find them on Facebook.
Burrito Brigade can be reached at BurritoBrigade.org.
BY PAUL NEEVEL
Kiasia Baggenstos
In June, following her freshman year in the University
of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication,
Portland native Kiasia Baggenstos was named the
first-ever winner of the Avel Louise Gordly Scholarship
for Oregon Black Women. Avel Gordly is a community
activist in Portland and was the first Black woman
elected to the Oregon State Senate. Baggenstos got
the scholarship when she “rose to the top for her
outstanding commitment to positive change as well
as for her top academic performance,” according to
The Skanner news. Baggenstos’s own childhood was
chaotic. “My biological father and mother have been in
my life only part-time,” she relates. “I’ve lived in over
20 different homes. Mom is a drug addict and dad had
a wife and children in Klamath Falls. They were never
together after I was born.” Her twin aunts Shaila and
Kaila Mayes, who were just six years older and lived
with her grandfather, took over the mother role for
Kiasia when they were in middle school and high school.
She eventually settled in with her mom’s brother
Joshua Baggenstos and his wife Jennifer Bischoff in
Portland. “Mom was in prison for identity theft and
robbery when I was 11 or 12,” she recalls. “She went
in pregnant with twins. All of her baby-daddies were
E U G E N E W E E K LY . C O M
crackheads, except for my dad.” Kiasia was in
middle school when she moved in to live with her
mom, who was just out of prison and staying with
a friend, along with the twins. “Mom was sober
for a while,” she says, “But she had a guy friend
in prison. When he got out and came over every
day, she would doze off on drugs.” When her mom
suddenly departed, Kiasia and the twins were left
behind. “I dropped out of eighth grade to take care
of the twins and the apartment,” she says. Uncle
Josh and Aunt Jenny came to the rescue, taking in
and adopting the twins. They later adopted three
more children abandoned by Kiasia’s mom, and
adopted Kiasia herself when she agreed to it at age
17. Although she never formally completed eighth
grade, Baggentos excelled at Parkrose High School,
earning a 4.0 grade point average. On Friday, June
23, she was the only undergrad among 12 UO jour-
nalism students who flew to Ghana, West Africa,
for a six-week internship program. “I’ll be their
social media manager,” she explains. “I’ll also be
interning in Ghana at the Daily Guide newspaper.”
Know a Happening Person? Email suggestions to Editor@EugeneWeekly.
com.
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