An Update About Shobi’s Table: Introducing Kari Olsen

We are pleased to announce that Kari Olsen will be leading an exploration of next steps for Shobi’s Table, a mission start of the Saint Paul Area Synod. Launched in 2011, Shobi’s Table was put on pause in October of 2017 in order to discern the best ministry model to carry the outreach forward.

“We will be looking at opportunities already existing in St. Paul,” Olsen says of the exploration team. “We want to partner with organizations to see what needs they have that are not already being fulfilled, networking with folks in the world of hunger advocacy, and focusing on not being an island, but rather a part of a larger network.”

Kari Olsen is a Deacon candidate and recent graduate from Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. She is a native of Washington state, where she worked in the restaurant industry and as the food service coordinator at Holden Village prior to her call to seminary. In addition to her work with Shobi’s Table, Olsen is currently working at Christ on Capitol Hill in St. Paul as kitchen coordinator.

“Building on the good work of the past seven years, we look forward to very soon being back on the street and expanding the impact of Shobi’s Table,” says the Rev. Justin Grimm, director for evangelical mission at the Saint Paul Area Synod.

In the coming months, Olsen and the team she has assembled will be focusing on developing a sustainable model for Shobi’s Table. Please keep Shobi’s Table and its ministry team in your prayers during these months of excitement and discernment. With questions, please contact Olsen at shobistable@gmail.com.