For those who may need assistance during the potential interrupton of SNAP benefits, there are some free hot meal options:

FREE MEAL AT JADE DUMPLING

WHEN: Beginning November 1, 12 – 2pm

WHERE: Jade Dumpling, 5th Street location ONLY – 207 E 5th Ave, Suite 100, Eugene

Beginning November 1, we will provide free SNAP to-go lunches from 12pm – 2pm at our 5th Street Location only for those impacted by the SNAP pause, until benefits are reinstated. Simply let our 5th street staff know you’d like a “SNAP lunch,” and they will know what to do.

FREE MEAL AT LAUGHING PLANET

WHEN: All business hours.

WHERE: All Laughing Planet locations are participating. Lasts until SNAP is back.

 Just ask for “Adult SNAP Meal” or “Kids SNAP Meal” or both. Our staff will take it from there.

No proof needed, no questions asked. Just the honor system. All Laughing Planet locations are participating.

FREE MEAL AT SOUPER BOWLS

WHEN: Mon – Thurs, 6:30 – 8pm

WHERE: Souper Bowls, 22 Valley River Center, Eugene

Ask for the Owner’s Special or Elana’s Spensial and we’ll make sure you’re well taken care of.

FREE MEAL AT ACORN COMMUNITY CAFÉ

WHEN: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday: 10:00am - 12:00pm

WHERE: Acorn Community Café, 769 Monroe Street, Eugene

Free meals available on a first come, first served basis. Supplies vary based on donations from the prior day.

Check out a locally-sourced list that is being updated regularly on the r/Eugene Reddit page here.

Wordcrafters is a local creative writing nonprofit with a mission to empower writers of all ages to tell their stories.

We’ve got two youth writing opportunities that we need your help telling students about.

Fiction Fantastic

Our annual youth short story contest, Fiction Fantastic, is open for entries from all Lane County students in grades K-12. It’s FREE for students to enter their original short stories between 300 and 3,000 words. (The contest closes January 10, 2026).

Fiction Fantastic facts

• Contest accepts submissions from Oct 1, 2025, to Jan 10, 2026

• Open to all Lane County students in grades K-12

• Blind-judged by story-loving volunteers

• 4 grade-level categories: K-2 (not judged), 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12

• No cost to enter

• Prizes and professional anthology publication for winners (plus chocolate!)

Here’s a link to a PDF of the contest flyer.  

And… if you’d like to read some of the stories yourself, we’d LOVE to have you as one of our volunteer judges. You can sign up to be a judge here. (Just let us know your potential conflict of interest, and we won’t assign you stories that might be from your students.)

You can learn all about Fiction Fantastic, read past years’ winning stories, and get the submission guidelines at fictionfantastic.org.

Write Club
Write Club is a monthly creative writing workshop for young writers.

Write Club gives youth the opportunity to find their writing community, while having time set aside for their creative writing endeavors. It’s a place they feel comfortable exploring writing and sharing with others. 

We’ve offer Write Club at two times:

• Teens (age 13+) meet on the 1st Saturday of every month (starting in January) from 11 am to 1 pm at the Wordcrafters studio (at 436 Charnelton St., Eugene).

• Youth (age 9+) meet on the 2nd Saturday of every month (from September to June), from 11 am to 1 pm at the Wordcrafters studio. Teens are welcome to attend the youth workshop. 

We offer pay-from-your-heart pricing for Write Club to meet varying financial needs, and have some scholarships available, as well. You can learn more at wordcrafters.org/write-club.