The non-governmental charity services are way more accommodating than the Drop-In Center. There's a Methodist church that puts on all sorts of free events, among them a dinner every Friday called the "No Penny Opera". The experience is so good you couldn't buy it. It's held below the actual church, in a large room that looks like a potential restaurant space. The ambiance is candle light, and in the corner someone lazily plays an accordion. The tables are long, German beer hall-style, and covered with nice psychedelic patterned tapestries. You are seated by the host. The patrons range from old-time homeless types to anarchists to nondescript adventurers, and, owing to the table arrangement (and this being San Francisco), everyone talks to one another. A waiter brings a plate of food, one dish suits all, which is a vegan plate of salad, wild rice, steamed greens and fresh bread. It's good. When you're done they bring tea, vegan chocolate cake and grapes. My policy when I don't give money for something is to help out a bit, so I do some dishes, but most people just leave and accept the take-home bag of fruit and vegetables.

One of the sponsors of this event is Food Not Bombs, another "anarchist kitchen". They're national. Predictably, there's some animosity toward them by the People's Kitchen folk. I've heard "Bombers" dismissed as "a bunch of elitist anarchists" and "white-collar anarchists" who "come in, serve the food and are gone. They're not of the people." They have also been described as "Food Not Flavor," which I suppose is a comment on their cooking. But no one complains about the No Penny Opera.