Shelter dinner

[Paula A]

Becky was at the homeless shelter volunteering last night. The manager told her they might now have enough food and she would have to be careful how she served it. The woman who had signed up for the night had called and said she didn't want to cook for 40...she sent in two 9x13 of chicken spaghetti which wasn't enough. Becky said luckily, a bread truck had brought day old bread and someone had donated peanut butter some time back...
It has been cold and rainy. It just made me sad that 1. someone would just not want to, and 2.why not ask a friend?

[determined]

Paula it is those types of people who are not volunteering for the right reasons. She is what I would call a "glory seeker" look at me I cooked for the homeless shelter. They will get their just rewards in the end.

[boffler]

Paula how very sad, she should have called and let someone know sooner...I agree Determined, wrong reasons. I have a son in law that always gives his turkey or ham to the shelters they are given on Thanksgiving and Christmas, it isn't much, but it all helps. This just reminds me to find out more about our local shelter..

[Paula A]

Becky and I decided we want to help with the Easter meal besides the Friday coming up, 11th, that I am signed up for. I also took a large jar of peanut butter and two big jars of grape jam for times they run out of food.
Our shelter closes at the end of this month. It is not one building; different churches in town, the ones with full kitchens and extra areas for sleeping, volunteer their facility for three weeks at a time. I heard some other church will be giving a noon meal of some kind until November when the churches start the overnight again.
A few people have shown "attitude" at the shelter, but most are so appreciative and always ask if they can help bring in the food when I drive up.

[determined]

Paula I can't remember where it is right off hand but one city has told a church that they can no longer work as a shelter because of fire codes and I think zoning.

[JoGee]

That happened here, determined. The lady running the meal program (all connected programs) in what she called her church, I caught her taking half of all the "really good" food to her home. She was mad that I put bean salad in plastic cups for easier serving, and yelled at me for not having it in a big pan instead. She also told me to cut the portions I served. I did report her.
They also found that when she gave Christmas gifts (donated) to the kids, within hours she took all the gifts back.
How cruel is that! Anyway, she broke a lot of city safety rules and codes, skimmed the donated money, and charged the people to sleep on the floor of her home/church, taking up every inch of the floor. They closed her down.
Don't you know that she is back in business, under a different name. Her "flock" of poor and hungry people are still being cheated. I do hope she gets caught again.

[Paula A]

The tv news should do an "undercover" of her place! No money is ever asked for at our shelter. It ends the end of this month and then homeless are left to themselves to find a place. There are some "camps" around and one was the source if a large fire two years ago.

[JoGee]

Some of these shelters require these people to turn over all their food stamps, then work for free in their thrift shop. The church got food supplies from the community's food bank, too. Some of the people are standing around street corners, with handmade signs soliciting money for these "churches".
How are these poor people supposed to get ahead?

Apparently one of our newscasters did a thing a couple years ago, interviewing the beggars on a corner near our neighborhood. But I don't think he did a whole lot of digging into the problem. I think the city did the probe into this other woman's church, that I mentioned. I think when I made my comments on what I saw, E told people at work, then the company had someone look into it and officially do something about it.
One of the papers had an article about that lady opening another church. Whether anyone has continued their probe or not, I haven't heard.

[determined]

Jo the place I'm thinking about wasn't listed as a "shelter". It was a regular church that just had it's doors open during the cold weather so the people had some where warm to sleep. Because people were sleeping in the pews and aisles they told them that they would have to stop because of fire codes.

[JoGee]

This wasn't an actual church....that's just what they called it.n.
It isn't an open, official shelter, per say.
It's a cheap little house that she uses for the operation. I suppose she might feed people there. But weekends there are tables set up in an empty lot between stores where the cooked food donors bring their pans of whatever they've cooked up.
I don't suppose the people eat so well during the week, even if their servings are skimped on that weekday. Well, that's how it was set up the time we offered to donate.
At this point, I'm not sure what stayed the same or has changed, after her getting shut down before.