Volunteer lunch program halted, at least temporarily

MOSES LAKE — Dorine Mata and her best friend Erika Espinoza had to make a tough decision.

The two operate Lola Ventures, a photography, catering and social media marketing business, besides their full-time jobs as staff members at Moses Lake Christian Academy.

All of that activity came to a halt with the COVID-19 outbreak and the closure of MLCA through at least the end of April. But Mata and Espinoza immediately started looking for something they could do to help. Their solution was to put their catering skills to work.

“We had to do something for the kids, so what’s the most basic thing we can do for them? And that was food,” Mata said.

They set up a Wednesday and Friday schedule to serve food to kids who were out of school. The menu included empanadas and tacos, sandwiches, fruits and vegetables, and pizza with the help of donations from Papa John’s. But after about eight days they had to close down.

“Hour by hour” on Thursday they monitored information from the Grant County Health District, Mata said, and Thursday afternoon came the news of additional positive tests in Moses Lake.

“We literally thought, prayed, discussed, argued a little bit,” she said, but in the end they decided to halt their lunch program, at least temporarily.

“We only served kids,” Mata said. She estimated they were serving about 170 to 190 meals each day. But as more COVID-19 cases appeared in Moses Lake, Mata and Espinoza decided the health risk had become too great.

“It was really heartbreaking for us to make the decision to stop. Because we were seeing so many families,” Mata said.

They would consider starting up the program again, if conditions allow, she said.

Mata said the two friends started their photography business about two years ago, when both were living in California. When it comes to telling a story, photography is her preferred medium.

“Photography has become like a language to me,” she said. At first she was mostly interested in landscapes. “I love doing landscapes, but I’m a portrait person. Now I just find a story in the person’s face.”

Espinoza’s family moved to Othello to start a Christian ministry, and Mata came with them to work on her goal of becoming a youth pastor, she said. She is employed as a Spanish instructor and marketing director at Moses Lake Christian Academy. Espinoza is music director at MLCA.

The social media marketing at Lola Ventures was a natural outgrowth of the photography, Mata said. The catering was added because people liked their cooking.

“We both love to cook,” she said, specializing in Latin American cuisines. “We started getting asked by people if we sold our food, or, ‘Could you come to my house and make dinner? I’d pay you.’”

All of the side jobs are enjoyable. The stay-home order has put an end to most of her activity, however.

“All of the things we were doing, and we’re told to stop doing all of them,” Mata said.

That doesn’t mean they’ve stopped looking for ways to help. “Even now, if we can’t do food, what can we do?” Mata said.