Yesterday was a day that filled my soul. It made me more aware. I knew that Portland, ME has a growing homeless population. I learned that that population was growing and yet the amount of dollars to support this community was not increasing to meet the demand.
On Monday, seven of my colleagues and I went to Preble Street Resource Center and worked in the soup kitchen prepping lunch for 600. I helped put together 50 bagged lunches (and another 50 for dinner) and helped cut up boxes of mushrooms and sorting fruit for fruit salad (for the following day) and then running the clean side of the dishwasher. My friends Russ, Liz and Patty served food in addition to cutting up beef for dinner and working next to me while we made sandwiches. Michelle and Felice made salads. Heather chopped up beef and worked with Michele on the dirty side of the dishwasher. We were busy and it was a lot of work. And every single person receiving a meal was appreciative and kind.
Forgive the poor quality as I only brought in my iPhone. I had a job to do and that was to help feed the homeless and the poor. The images were only during a fleeting few seconds that I had to capture these.
Me and my bestie, Patty, of Kivalo Photography, at the beginning of our shift. We do so much together so it only made sense for us to volunteer together. There are plans to go back and do this again!
Michele Stapleton and Heather Laverriere keeping up with the flurry of pots, pans and trays!
I love washing trays! (they were steaming HOT coming out of the dishwasher! OUCH!)
Liz and Russ, of Russell Caron Photography, posing nicely for me at the end of our crazy shift.
Jane Berger chilling out momentarily towards the end of our shift while we wait for the next round of piping hot dishes to come out for sorting and stacking.
After our shift, Sue Ellen pulled us aside and gave us a quick overview of what the homeless population looks like in Maine. The kitchen was originally built to feed about 40 people. They have gone up about 62% in the past 5 years to where they are now serving 1200 meals each day! That being said, their budget to feed these people has stayed same throughout. They rely heavily on in-kind donations from local grocers.
There is a shortage of affordable housing in Portland. They can get a voucher for $850 for rent each month but essentially, that is really $0 because the rent in Portland is at least $1200 so the vouchers don’t get used. This is unacceptable. The boarding homes where someone could rent a room have mostly all been converted into $300,000 condos after knocking down a few walls and remodeling and upgrading. They can’t move out of Portland because most do not have transportation. So they could essentially find a place just outside of Portland that is more affordable, but then never be able to find (or get to) a job, get to their appointments and reach other services.
About 2/3 of the population have some form of mental illness. These individuals have experienced trauma. Many of these people (not all!) have some form of substance abuse issues – to help them deal with their mental illnesses and to help them feel normal, even if for a short time. What each of these people needs is a safe place to live. With that, they can then move on to the next steps of normalcy with jobs, food and support services (i.e. substance, emotional, mental).
The population is not just men. It is men, women and teens. Some as young as 12! And the shelter that houses teens is meant for 18-21 year olds. This same place houses only 24 teens. 12 beds for boys and 12 for girls. The shelter is run on a lottery system and sometimes you wait for hours. In addition to the main shelter that was built for a small number of men to help them get back on their feet now houses up to 150+ each night. Some local business open their doors at night to make more room for the homeless. These places offer a mat on the floor which doesn’t seem like a lot, but when it’s raining or when it is like it has been a lot lately, snowing along with frigid temperatures that hurt your face after just a few minutes of exposure, it’s a lot. I know that I would much rather sleep on a mat on the floor than outside facing the elements, especially in the winter.
Then, think about the days when you are sick and you want to lay down and sleep. In the shelter, everyone must exit at 7:30am. No sleeping in. You can’t enter the shelter again to get your bed until after 8pm. If it is frigidly cold outside (like it was yesterday with negative temps with the windchill) what do you do? The kitchen allowed people to stay inside after breakfast yesterday because the cold was too much, but after lunch everyone had to leave so that they could clean up and prep for the dinner session. The kitchen aims to feed these people and provide the calories that they need to stay alive. They work a lot with very little and accomplish much, especially with the help of donations and volunteers.
If you have been considering taking a day to volunteer but you aren’t sure where you to go, consider Preble Street in Portland, ME. There are also many local animal shelters, the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital, spending time with elders at a home or you can check with 2-1-1 for more ideas. If you want to learn more about my experience with Preble Street feel free to email me or you can visit Preble Street’s website to learn more about volunteering.