A New Way to Feed the Homeless

Written by: Kate Snyder, Development and Donor Communications Coordinator

At EECM, we try hard to pay attention to the needs of our clients and adapt our services to meet as many of those needs as possible. This often means slowly expanding programs, refining them and making them better and better with time.

Take meals at the Men's Emergency Shelter. Every night of the year, local groups prepare and serve dinner to the men staying at the shelter. Depending on the group, dinner can be anything from spaghetti and meatballs to fried chicken to Korean specialties. Breakfast most days is less elaborate -- cold cereal mainly. But over time, Saturday breakfast at the shelter has expanded and taken on a more delicious flavor.

Our dinner schedule became so full (the calendar to serve an evening meal is often full several months in advance!) that we began to encourage groups to provide a hot breakfast on Saturday mornings. Now, several Saturdays a month, the men in our shelter get to enjoy pancakes, breakfast casseroles, and other tasty morning treats.

Now, the Shelter meal program is evolving once more to include passing out bagged lunches on Sundays.

Why just Sundays, you ask? EECM's Soup Kitchen serves lunch Monday through Friday and another kitchen in the area is open on Saturdays. That just leaves Sunday as a vacancy in meals for the homeless in this community.

We're trying to fill that void. Interested groups can now sign up to prepare sack lunches that staff will distribute as men leave the Shelter on Sunday mornings. Ideally, the lunches will include a sandwich, piece of fruit, beverage, and "snack" (like pretzels or chips or a dessert).

Does this sound like a project you'd like to undertake? Contact EECM's Volunteer Coordinator, Emily Huck at 412.361.5549 ext. 403 for more details. And thanks!