Community Spotlight
Meet SevaRise
by Sarabjeet Saluja Bhutani, Founder and Executive Director, SevaRise
IT STARTS WITH DINNER
When we started SevaRise, one of the first calls we made was to Rainbow Place, just to see how we could help. Rainbow’s Director of Development, Nina, welcomed us right in. We ended up serving one dinner, and that's when we saw how Rainbow does it: restaurant style, going table to table, treating each woman like a guest instead of someone waiting in line. There was something about that, the dignity of it, the love in how simple it was, that
touched all of us. We only ever served that one meal there. It turned out to be one of the last dinners they served before they closed their doors for the season. I still think about it.
Not long after, the news came: after 44 years, Rainbow Place was being forced to vacate. It didn't feel like someone else's crisis. It felt like ours too. We started calling everyone we knew, asking about space, trucks, extra hands, anything. Whole families showed up, spouses, kids, whoever could carry a box. It wasn't a plan. It was just people showing up because something mattered to them.
Not long after that, we joined Rainbow for “An Evening Under the Rainbow,” a reminder that even in a hard season, there's still room for joy. As Rainbow moves into its next chapter, we're not stepping away. We're excited to keep showing up, for the young people who'll now be served alongside the women who still depend on Rainbow's care. But Rainbow Place wasn’t the beginning. That happened earlier, over a different dinner.
A DIFFERENT DINNER
To understand why Rainbow Place means so much to us, I should back up and explain how SevaRise started in the first place. For more than 30 years as a school counselor, I told students the same thing: don't be a bystander. If something isn't right, do something about it. That instinct came early. My parents immigrated from India in the 1970s, and even while building a new life here, they still made time to give back to the community. To this day, my mom says: if you can help someone, you should. There's a word for it: seva, or selfless service. It's been ingrained in me for as long as I can remember.
That same instinct followed me into my friendships. In our twenties, a group of us volunteered together through a professional networking organization: Special Olympics, hospitals, mentoring young people. Then careers and families took over, the way they do. We got busy with life, and volunteering quietly fell by the wayside. Fast forward to now. That same group of friends is still here. We just finally have more time now to give back.
Long before that dinner at Rainbow Place, there was a different dinner, the one where all of this actually began. A friend told us about a colleague who'd just been laid off, a mom with young children and a spouse with a chronic illness. Later, someone mentioned seeing many more cars lining up at the Sunday food pantry across from her home. One story led to another, each one a reminder that families in our own community were struggling.
As we sat there, I finally said what had been on my mind. “What if we did something together? What if we found out where there is a need and showed up to help?” Hearing myself say it out loud surprised me. Volunteering with friends was something I'd been thinking about for months, but until then, I'd kept it to myself.
Once I said it out loud, I realized I wasn't the only one who'd been thinking it. A few friends admitted they'd been wanting to help somewhere but didn't know where to start, or felt uncomfortable showing up alone. By the time dinner ended, we were already talking about available dates and naming who else would want in. By the next day, I was on the phone, calling shelters, food banks, and organizations that support children in foster care. That night became SevaRise.
I've walked families new to this country through the food bank line myself, and dug through the school clothing closet for a coat that fit. I still work in a school today, and I've watched my own students carry home bags from a food center that SevaRise supports.
Today we work alongside ten amazing partners across the DMV, tackling food scarcity, supporting women in crisis, and meeting essential needs through collections, hands-on volunteering, and ongoing monthly support. Our volunteers range in age from 15 to over 90, and it's not unusual to see mothers, daughters, and spouses showing up side by side. Every person involved is a volunteer. SevaRise is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit with no paid staff and no overhead, so every dollar goes straight to the people it's meant to serve.
SHOPPING FOR SOMEONE ELSE
Our very first year, we set up a boutique-style shopping experience for Valentine's Day at a shelter. One little girl there, younger than 10, has stayed with me ever since. She didn't choose a single thing for herself. She was shopping for her friends and teachers, she told us, because they had all been so nice to her. She carefully considered which piece would suit each one best, a beaded purse for one, dangly earrings for another, a silver brooch for someone else. I've thought about her every time we've set up one of these tables since.
WHAT WE'VE LEARNED
If you've supported Rainbow Place, you already know it doesn't take many people, just a few showing up, and doing it with real care, to change what's possible for a woman or a shelter like this one. That's a lesson we've carried into everything we do: yes to learning about causes we knew little about. Yes to standing alongside organizations already doing the work. Yes to giving our time, asking what's needed and helping meet it, and simply showing up. Every “yes” strengthens the communities we care about, including this one.
We believe that when we serve others, we all rise. That's not a tagline. It's what happens. There is real joy in showing up. In doing the work. In serving with love. That's SevaRise.