Some things that you may not think about when giving to the homeless.

[pinboy3niner]

46. A lot of food banks also do much more, serving as community resource centers

The one in my community provides a wide range of services and has now taken over operation of the local 120-bed homeless shelter (which has been filled to capacity since the advent of colder weather in September).

Today we served 480 Christmas dinners at the resource center and provided toys for all the children. The volunteer coordinator for the event was worried about not having enough help because only about 30 volunteers had signed up in advance. But the center has a website and FB page and is very good at networking throughout the community, so the coordinator needn't have worried. Well over 100 people showed up to volunteer.

We also have a quarterly outreach to veterans that follows the Stand Down for Homeless Veterans model. The veterans outreach is independent of the resource center, but the center's director happens to serve as co-chair of the committee that runs the outreach program.

For anyone looking for info on resources available in a community, the web makes it a lot easier to find these days.