16 Jan Serving Homeless Families
Many people are just one illness or accident away from homelessness. Homelessness doesn’t just affect adults. Many of the homeless are families with young children. In Salt Lake City, the Road Home opens a winter crisis shelter specifically for homeless families with children. The shelter is an old warehouse with rows and rows of cots lining the walkways. Each family has a small bin where they can store their belongings. Families are grouped together. No family seeking shelter is turned away.
On Thursday, January 15, 2015, ForeverGreen Members and employees were able to give the 257 people staying at the shelter a hot meal and some ForeverGreen love.
The shelter gets a lot of bread and pasta, but rarely do they have protein. Even more rarely do they get fresh vegetables and fruit. We provided everyone at the shelter with an abundance of chicken, salad and fruit. The children touched our hearts as they made sure their friends and families were being fed, coming back for plates of food when they found someone who hadn’t eaten yet. We kept the food coming until everyone had enough to eat, then filled the community freezer and refrigerator to overflowing.
After seeing how many young children were there we couldn’t stop with just a meal. At the January 16 open house, Members put toddler care kits together for the small children. The kits included a plastic “sippy”style cup, diapers, wipes and antibacterial hand wipes. Fifty-five kits were made in 20 minutes.
We are forever changed by what we saw at the shelter. We will be more grateful for what we have, more generous in our giving, and more aware of the individuals behind the label of “homeless.”
We hope that by sharing these stories you are inspired and energized to connect and serve from the heart in your communities. Together we create a better world one kind act at a time.