Serving Up Compassion and Community

Every weekday at 9 a.m., a small group of volunteers gather to set up a hospitality table at the entrance to a nondescript office park in south King County. On the table, they carefully place carafes of hot coffee, cups of cream and sugar and an assortment of pastries and kid-friendly snacks, along with small toys and games.  

Started in December 2025 by Sarah Riggio, a parishioner at Seattle’s St. James Cathedral, the Café Gratis—as it’s affectionately known—hospitality table now has dozens of volunteers, including several from SU.

But this is more than a breakfast-time social. The volunteers are there to support immigrants who are arriving for Immigration and Customs Enforcement check-ins at the office of a for-profit contractor that provides electronic monitoring systems, including ankle monitors. Immigrants from across Western Washington who are in the federal Intensive Supervision Appearance Program are required to check in regularly, sometimes as often as multiple times a week.

The volunteers hold signs that say “Free Coffee” in four languages and once an individual or family approaches the table, they are given a cup of coffee, a toy and snacks for children and are greeted by a friendly face.

Welcoming Aroma of Café Gratis

Often a member of the Seattle University community is among the volunteers on any given day.

It’s a way to be in continued solidarity with migrants here in the Pacific Northwest, says volunteer Andrea Fontana, associate director of SU’s Center for Jesuit Education.

“Our Jesuit, Catholic mission calls us to encounter and accompany others,” she says. “It’s a way to work together to change societal structures and to help improve the lives, well-being and dignity of every human being, especially those on the margins.”

Seattle University was a factor in the genesis of the table. When Riggio had the idea for the hospitality project, she immediately reached out to Audrey Hudgins, EdD, clinical professor in the International Studies department, to collaborate.

Hudgins and Riggio had worked together on immigrant accompaniment before, so when Riggio called, Hudgins was all in.

“I don’t want anyone in our community to feel alone as they navigate the U.S. immigration system,” Hudgins says. “The connections I make at the table with people from all over the world make this volunteer work meaningful.”

Through word-of-mouth, virtual information sessions, class visits and an in-person presentation hosted at SU, news of the hospitality table and volunteer opportunities spread across campus, inspiring those in the community to volunteer.

Assistant Professor of Psychology Meg Blattner, PhD, says that she was drawn to volunteer after Riggio visited her Community Psychology class to talk about the table.

“The hospitality table deeply embodied the values and philosophy we were discussing in class,” she says, “so I knew I needed to carve out time to spend mornings volunteering there.”

SU faculty and staff sign up online for shifts, ensuring that there are enough volunteers to keep the hospitality table staffed daily.

Participants will coordinate for an “all-SU” shift, but volunteers can also go solo, providing an opportunity to meet like-minded people and build community and solidarity across Seattle and King County.

Onsite volunteers encounter individuals and families who have traveled from as far as Bellingham and Centralia, speaking various languages such as Spanish, Portuguese or French. Some arrive alone, others drive in with their families or accompanied by community members who want to ensure that their neighbors aren’t detained at their check-in.

Upon arrival, seeing the smiling volunteers holding their “Free Coffee” signs, immigrants will often approach the table first, sometimes out of curiosity and some who are already familiar with the group and want to say hello again.

Conversations can range from friendly chatter about the weather to more serious topics about fear and risk. Sometimes, the only words that are exchanged are “coffee?” and “yes, please,” but the smiles that accompany the hot coffee and nourishing food can often be a more powerful form of communication.   

“The hospitality table literally places friendly faces and a warm cup of coffee in the path of folks who are terrified and encountering an unforgiving, unwelcoming system,” says Blattner.

“Providing coffee and snacks in such a vulnerable moment centers the experience of our immigrant neighbors and lets them know they are seen and loved.”

Despite the dangers of detention and anxiety surrounding their check-ins, immigrants in the electronic supervision program have little choice but to come to the out-of-the-way office on a regular basis, making the presence of the hospitality table all that more important.

Fontana, who co-led the Borderlands Intergenerational Immersion trip at SU, says that she has seen the presence of volunteers at the hospitality table brings comfort and a sense of community support to immigrants.

“At this time in our country’s history with the targeting of immigrants by our administration, this accompaniment feels especially urgent,” she says. “When people who are afraid are accompanied, their fear might be lifted a bit.”

‘Walk with the Excluded’

Although the Café Gratis hospitality table concept was started by Catholics and is supported by the Jesuits West Province, the volunteer teams are made up of people of many different faiths and traditions from throughout the region.

“The hospitality table is one of the most beautiful and accessible ways that SU faculty and staff can ‘walk with the excluded,’ to use the language of the Jesuit apostolic preferences,” says English Professor and Director of UCOR Lydia Cooper, PhD, who volunteers regularly.

“We spend time in a space of warmth, refreshment and welcome at a location where many of our neighbors are being made to feel excluded,” they explain. “There is perhaps no more universal language of welcome than coffee, a snack and a conversation. That's a language that we at SU speak fluently.”

Blattner agrees that often the most powerful language is sometimes not a verbal exchange at all. Since she started volunteering, she has begun to bring her children to help staff the table, which has transformed the way she thinks about hospitality.

“Children go with their parents to their immigration appointments and feel just as scared. When children come (up) to the hospitality table, I see their scared faces relax,” she says.

“Admittedly, my Spanish is very poor, so verbal conversations are quite limited for me. The beauty is that so much can be said through simple phrases, actions and non-verbal interactions.”

Blattner recalls a particularly meaningful interaction recently when a nervous child hesitated to approach the table and her own son walked over to her to offer a snack and a toy.

“I think there was something about having another kid approach her that felt comforting. Serving and being with others is always meaningful, but for me, bringing my kids and having them experience what I try to teach my SU students is extra special.

"We were serving coffee and caring for neighbors, but really being present is the heart of the hospitality table.”

The Café Gratis hospitality table program is actively seeking new volunteers and all are welcome to join. Contact Mark Petterson or Audrey Hutchins for more information.