By Aaron Allen, The Seattle Medium
Last Tuesday morning, just before sunrise, the front door of Simply Soulful, a Black-owned soul food restaurant in Seattle’s Central District, was shattered during a break-in. The burglary came just hours before the business was set to launch a new community feeding program aimed at helping those facing food insecurity.
According to co-owner Lillian Rambus, the break-in occurred at 6:50 a.m., just moments after a shift change in the restaurant’s 24-hour security coverage. The intruder shattered the front door glass to gain entry and stole the restaurant’s daily cash box.
“The craziest thing is that we have 24-hour security,” said Rambus. “They had just switched shifts. One (security officer) had got into his truck. The guy that was coming on got out of his truck. He said his supervisor was coming that day, so he wanted to go ahead and do his walk around because normally he just sits in the parking lot across the street. He went to do his walk around the building and came back, and in that time, our restaurant had been broken into.”
The break-in left the main entrance significantly damaged. The owners are now exploring options to increase security without compromising the restaurant’s appearance.
“The damage to the door was more costly than the financial loss from the burglary,” said Rambus. “I’m not sure exactly what we are going to do, but we definitely have to increase the security. I don’t want to mess up the aesthetic with the front, so that’s my biggest thing, finding a way to make it more secure without making it look like it’s in the middle of a war zone.”
Despite the early morning damage, Simply Soulful opened for business that day and moved forward with the launch of its community feeding program, a grassroots initiative born from growing need in the neighborhood. The program aims to provide warm, nourishing meals to anyone in need on a first-come, first-served basis, with no questions asked.
“I think the beginning of the month just showed us like people are one check or one EBT deposit away from starving,” said Rambus. “The food banks are running out of food, and sometimes you’re giving people food and they ain’t got nowhere to cook it.”
“We have the facilities. We have the kitchen. We can put out 100 meals probably faster than other people can. So that was something that me and my staff, some of them on their day off, come back in and help us serve or help us cook or whatever. We just started doing it out of our own pocket, really,” added Rambus.
While the program had just launched the week prior to the burglary, it had already made an impact, according to Rambus. That made the timing of the break-in even more painful.
“I’ve been here for three years, and we started our feeding program last week, and I hate to think, but I’m like, I just hope it’s not somebody that I actually tried to feed,” said Rambus. “Like this is crazy. Don’t come when we’re trying to do things (for the community) and then come back and try to rob me. If you had asked me for something to eat, I obviously would have given it to you. I’m just frustrated, that’s all.”
Simply Soulful continues to operate the feeding program while repairing the physical and emotional damage left behind. For those who want to support, the restaurant encourages donations or simply spreading the word. As their flyer states, “Every bit of help makes a world of difference.”
