Six
children arrive – aged 4 to 17 – every night when dinner is served.
Sisters, brothers, and cousins, they look after each other, are
well-behaved, and eat everything on their plates.
At another
dinner program, two children cross a busy highway, at times carrying
the baby of the family, from the motel where they’re staying. Their
mom works late; their dad recently had surgery. Their plates are
clean by the end of the meal, and they never complain about the
food.
A man
arrives at the cold night shelter carrying his work shirts. He hangs
them carefully over a chair, joins the other guests for dinner, and
falls asleep on his mat as soon as the lights are dimmed. He’s
underemployed at a temp job but hopeful of getting more hours and
being able to rent a small place of his own.
A homebound, elderly
woman on the west side of the county pulls her chair up to the
window and waits for the delivery. She’s eligible for the Meals on
Wheels program, but there’s not enough money in the local program to
include her. She counts on the Soup Train meals to keep hunger at
bay.
All
too often, we can’t “fix” the complicated situations that people
face, especially in these dire economic times, but the Coalition for
the Homeless works to help ensure that adults and children in need
have food, shelter when weather gets cold, and a place to go where
they feel welcomed.
