Sixth Feed - Stories

Despite the crazy holiday season and even crazier weather, 18 of us turned out for outreach on December 23rd, a mere two days before Christmas. Unfortunately I was unable to assist due to work. I had barely enough time to meet with everyone, get the bags packed, and get everyone out the door to go serve before I had to head back into work. I thought that a better idea than simply cancelling the event.

We had two good sized groups head out to the 5th avenue shopping area and Seattle Center; everyone was a first timer. After giving some instruction I asked if anyone had any questions, but there were none. Everyone was ready to go get their serve on even though they had never done it before. After the two main groups took off and I was heading back to work, a few more people showed up, thankfully we had enough left to get them packed up and sent out to Belltown.

As this was our last outreach for 2008 I've been reminiscing on how we've done so far, and it's been nothing short of amazing. When I started this group a few months back I kinda figured it would be me and a few friends doing this a few times a month. However already our meeting space feels a bit small, it's a bit hectic to get the bags packed, break into groups, and head out. PLEASE DON'T LET THAT EFFECT YOUR ATTENDANCE!!! Just be thankful that there are so many like minded individuals willing to do what we do.

I'm not sure where this group is headed, or what the future holds. All I know is that we will try and grow the group as much as we can and continue giving away every single penny that is donated.

Sixth Feed - Stats

• approximate weekly Stats: 18 Servers, 180 served
• approximate total stats: 114 servers, 930 served, $617 donate by volunteers

Fifth Feed - Stories

approximate weekly Stats: 40 Servers, 200 served
approximate total stats: 96 servers, 750 served, $522 donate by volunteers

Last night we partnered with Coal Creek Chapel in Bellevue to help them distribute mass amounts of resources that they'd collected; it turned out to be a crazy yet fruitful night.

We sent out 3 backpack teams to our standard areas; Seattle Center, Bell Town, and the 5th avenue shopping area. They were armed mostly with Hottie hand-warmers, but had some food as well. One volunteer had this to say about a certain small concrete park area near the Westin: "It was hard to distinguish how many of the mounds of blankets had people wrapped inside them, but nobody responded when I walked up and offered hand warmers. We were almost worried about whether or not the blanket people were alive under there, and I would've started shaking people but we started to see the feet wiggle a little. We left a couple hand warmers for each person to find when they wake up. We carried on with our night and unloaded everything we had." She goes on to tell of another man that she'd unsuccessfully tried to server earlier in the night: "I told (the other volunteer) that he probably wouldn't accept anything from her, but she approached him anyway. Within seconds of her presence, he started rambling about how he is President of the United Nations while she wrapped an emergency blanket around him."

The crew that went to Belltown reported "Walking around Belltown, our group ran into many people that were very appreciative to receive the hand warmers and care packages. We actually ran out! We stumbled upon a Women's shelter between 1st and 2nd, and there were many women waiting to get in. Apparently, the doors to the shelter open at 6:00pm, but i am not sure if that specific shelter provides food."

I met up with the group from Coal Creek down at Occidental Park handing out cloths, hand-warmers, hot soup and coffee. If you've ever been to Occidental Park at night you know there is never a dull moment, we were reminded of this last night.

There was an ongoing altercation between a man and a woman. Apparently the man had hit the woman in the eye, when the cops showed up she did not want to press charges, and the cops left; that's when it got a bit crazy. The woman kept yelling that "He hit me in my @#$% eye", and every once in a while she would run up and kinda hit him. Often in these situations homeless people will police themselves, however eventually it escalated. All those people jostling around children and boiling water (for the soup) caused some concern. Finally, when they both fell on the ground, and I thought the woman hit her head on a post, it was time to make the disturbance go away, and we did.

We met a number of interesting people, most of whom just want someone to talk too. We met one man, Desert Storm Vet, who even showed us the cancer on his leg to prove his point while pleaing for bus money to a specific hospital; quite the story though I don't remember it all.

Last night was a rough night to be homeless indeed! See ya'll on the 23rd for Sixth Feed!

Todd @ wetfoot dot net

Fifth Feed - Plans

Plans for tonight are firming up...

1. Meet up for a bit of instruction, 8pm
2. Break into 3-4 teams, each with a car
3. Drive to various locations (occidental park, Seattle Center, U-Dist., etc)4. Walk around handing out hand-warmers and pointing people to the car for blankets5. Each location has a shelter near-by in case there are left overs

Keep in mind we are partnering with a church group on this one, many of them have never done anything like this before. I LOVE introducing new peoples to street outreach and am stoked that some of ya'll are going to help me out.

ToddS

Fifth Feed - TONIGHT

Tonight is supposed to be REAL bad, so we are going to move our event to tonight. Repeat: We are bringing blankets and hand warmers to the streets TONIGHT! Let me know if you can join, I apologize for changing the day but it's going to be a rough night for those on the street.

Currently planning for 7pm, but that might change to 8pm.

ToddS

(impromptu) Fifth Feed - Planning

On my walk to work this morning I was very thankful that I only have 10 blocks to go, I was chilled to the bone when I got here. I started thinking about all the homeless sleeping on the streets this week, so sad. I was thinking about emailing all ya'll and putting together an extra street outreach event to get some additional hottie hand warmers out in the community. Then, just moments ago, a friend called me and stated that his church had hundreds of blankets and cases of hotties that they are ready to give out and would like us to help coordinate the effort.

So this Wednesday evening, from approximately 8pm to 10pm, we are going to partner with a church from Bellevue to help the homeless in Seattle stay just a bit warmer in these frigid temperatures. We are still figuring out the specifics and the process, so PLEASE be flexible, but we will likely be meeting at the normal place about 8pm to get started. If you can make it let me know!

If not no worries, we are still on for the 23rd.

ToddS

Forth Feed - Stories

Last night was yet another success. we had a group doing PBJ sandwiches that eventually grew to about 6 people. We only made 100, but were able to knock 'em out in about 45 minutes. Also one of our volunteers brought in some dental floss and some $17 phone cards, imagine the suprise when the people found those in their bags.

We tried a new location last night as myself and 3 others hoofed it down 4th avenue to the underpass and Yessler park area. All told we got ride of 50 bags in less than 20 minutes. We might drive to this area next week as it's about a 20 minute walk each way; though I kinda like the excercise.

There were a number of people hanging out in Yessler park, most of them Latino Americans, working-poor I would imagine. Then there was a whole host of people hanging out at Occidental Park. We got cleaned out while people obviously in need still had their hands outstretched.

On the walk down 4th we saw two gentlement walking out of the Library that were very thankful to be fed, called us a blessing ... and another semi-coherent man that gave us an old folded up magazine in return for the food, likely all he had to give.

So that's that for now, more stories from other volunteers when I get them. Fifth Feed December 23rd!

ToddS

Forth Feed - Stats

approximate weekly Stats: 15 Servers, 200 served, $122 donated by volunteers
approximate total stats: 56 servers, 550 served, $522 donate by volunteers

... and the PBJs were Rollin' ... stories to come

ToddS

Forth Feed - Bag Contents

Contents for tomorrow will be: Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich, granola bar, yoghurt, apple sauce, bag of chips and a hand warmer. Not bad, I feel like we are getting a good list together, though we still need to work on toiletries, socks, and a resource card. See ya'll tomorrow!

ToddS

Fourth Feed next week!

Our fourth street outreach event is next Tuesday, the 9th. The group I was in last time had some great suggestions, and one that I would like to attempt to implement right away. We are going to try out making PB&J sandwiches for the bags. I think that's a good idea to get something slightly more substantial in the bags and still keep the costs down. I've done the PB&J thing for street outreach before, but we were making like 30 and not 200, so this will be a fun experiment. Having said all that, let me know if ...

A. You will be able to serve with us on the 9th starting at 7pm.
B. if you can arrive a bit early, shooting for 6:15, and help us make mucho mucho PB&J sannys; hoping to get at least 6 people who can show up early.

That's that. I will leave you with a few reminders for the people who are thinking about joining for the first time ....

1. Bring a backpack if at all possible, or something to hold 10-12 sack lunches. I will have grocery bags available for you to use if needed.
2. Bring $10, or more, to pitch in for food for the next event. You guys donated $210 last time and every penny, and more, was spent for the food next week; I'm excited that a fully volunteer funded group is a viable business model. THANKS GUYS!
3. Parking can be tough, but there should be street parking and since it's past 6pm it should be free. If not there is a cheap pay lot the next block up on the same side of the street.
4. A few of us often go out for beers afterward, if you are intersted in some chit chat let me know before we head out.

That's that for now!

ToddS
todd at wetfoot dot net
http://feedseattle.blogspot.com/

Third Feed

approximate weekly Stats: 18 Servers, 150 served, $210 donated by volunteers
approximate total stats: 41 servers, 350 served, $400 donate by volunteers

Last night was exciting and mellow all at the same time...

It was exciting to see over 18 people show up ready and willing to feed the homeless, giving of their own time and money. Many of the volunteers responded to a day before the event post, so I must admit I was a bit unprepared food wise. We aim to have each person create and hand out 10-15 bags, we only had enough for about 7 per person this week. BUT I ASSURE YOU ALL I will have more than enough at the next event!

Once we put the bags together and hit the streets to distribute, it was fairly mellow. The team I was with went to the Seattle Center and while there were more people than usual at the Seattle Center we didn't come across too many people other than that. Obviously there is a correalation there due to the cold weather; but at least it wasn't raining. The various groups of people we served at the Seattle Center were very thankful.

Another group went to the 5th ave shopping area. In their words "We ran into one guy who was holding a sign (definitely a young guy... maybe early twenties?) when I walked up, and was overjoyed upon receiving the baggie. He told me that his best friend had just walked down the McDonalds, so I handed him another one but he refused it. He asked if I would go find his friend and give it to him personally, said he would get a kick out of someone just being nice to him. I headed a few blocks down to McDonalds with my group in tow. Low and behold, there was a guy with a sign standing outside the front doors. I asked if his name was "Alex" or "Astro", and he says, "Yea! Astro Boy? That's me!" His face lit up just at me knowing his name and saying that his friend sent me. So that was that, I gave him his baggie, wished him a Happy Thanksgiving, and on we went."

Again, the volunteer attendance was amazing, and I hope to see you all again, even while I continue to look for new volunteers. I've no idea what we are going to do when we out grow the room we work out of, but it's a problem I wish to have.

ToddS

Second Feed

weekly Stats: 13 Servers, 110 served
total stats: 23 servers, 200 served

On this rainy night my team reached out to the Bell Town area, we also had a team at the 5th ave shopping district as well as one at Seattle Center.

Saw lots of people around the YWCA as usual. Not sure if they are waiting for services or what, some of them took a bag while others didn't.

Passed a guy on a bike, didn't think too much of it. A few minutes later he came back by us saying he was starving, imagine his suprise when he learned about our evening activity.

Gave a bag to an older African American gentleman at a bus stop who asked us if we thought it was a mistake that Obama was elected, political discussions on the streets; nice!

Saw the standard large group in front of the bodega on 2nd ave where we got cleaned out last time. Still quite a few takers, even served a few people where "money was being exchanged"; read into that what you will.

Saw a group of teenagers at a bus stop, they all took a bag even though a few needed encouragement, especially one particular zoned out girl who's boyfriend (?) took a bag for her.

Need to get healthier non-perishable food into the bags while keeping the costs down; suggestions?

That's that for Second Feed.

Email about Second Feed

I am happy to announce that I am no longer a Board Member of TeenHOPE. Over the last few weeks we have essentially given the company to another non-profit to manage, as they have MUCH deeper pockets than we do. They are going to continue to use half the duplex as a youth shelter and will use the portion we used as an office to offer emergency services to women; so it's truly a win-win.

I am excited to move my attention back to our budding Street Outreach Team. The next event will be on Tuesday, November 11th, from 7pm to 9pm. I've already purchased the goods to distribute, so please bring $10 cash to kick into the effort. If you truly can not afford the $10, no worries, come help us out anyway, just talk to me about it instead of ignoring it.

NO OUTREACH TOMORROW

As most of you know I started this outreach team when the homeless shelter that I volunteer at, and am on the Board of Directors for, started the process of closing due to lack of funding. We've since gotten good news that another non-profit company might take it over and continue operations, and might actually expand those operations by using it as a woman's shelter as well as a youth shelter. That's the good news.

The bad news is that our board of directors have to meet with their board of directors tomorrow, so I will not be available to do outreach tomorrow. There are few things that I would post-pone our outreach events for, but this is one of them. So, NO OUTREACH TOMORROW. However once our boards meet I will reschedule to either later this week or next week.

First Feed - Interactions

We started the night by helping a lady that was being harrassed by someone she didn't know. Apparently just by being there we scared him off and gave her $1 for the bus

There was a good amount of poeople hanging out at the Seattle Center House, nice and warm afterall. A few of 'em had laptops, likely one of their last posessions from a former life. Gotta love Seattle.

Met a former Navy Man that was living in his stinky cramped car, even showed me where he was shot on his leg. Good guy, just wanted someone to talk too. So Sad.

Lot's of poeple near Dicks in Lower Queen Anne, mostly Spare Change salesmen; all very thankful.

Lastley we just about got mauled by a group of people in BellTown; cleaned us out. One of 'em was pregnant, and likely on drugs. So Sad.

It was an amazing First Feed, thanks a TON for all of you that came and helped out; I can't wait for the next one on October 28th.

First Feed

10 servers, 90 people served. Stories to come...

Survey Walk

Our first event is next week, but five of us went out last Tuesday night about 7pm just to see what the streets looked like; they were fairly busy. We saw about 15 kids hanging out at the stage along with random pan-handlers around the 5th ave. shopping area. We had a few interactions, one that left me feeling rather sad, but also knowing that starting this Street Outreach Program is a good thing.

That's that for now, more stories from the streets later. Here is the ad I am posting to drum up interest, gives you are few details.


“I Just wanna feed the Homeless”

I volunteer at a homeless shelter that we are closing down due to lack of funding … and it sucks. We were looked at by a number of large grant agencies but apparently a 15 year track record keeping kids off the streets was not enough. I've decided to do my own thing, to escape the politics and do what I am passionate about.

Short Version: I want to gather a group of people who are hard-core passionate about feeding the streets, to give me $20 and 4 hours a month.

We’re going to keep this simple, to provide a low entry point for volunteers as well as low administrative overhead for me. Every other Tuesday, starting at 7pm, we will meet in the common room of my apartment building at 4th and Blanchard. This will be the order of events for the night:

1. Upon your arrival everyone gives me $10, of which 100% will go into buying food for the following event. If you truly can’t afford the $10 that’s fine, but come talk to me about it instead of just ignoring it.

2. We’ll spend an hour or so chit chatting, telling stories about last weeks adventures, and listening to tunes while we put provision bags together consisting of: socks, an entrée, canned fruit, granola bar, a sweet of some sort, capri sun, shampoo, soap, toothbrush, toothpaste, napkin, fork, hand warmer, and a resource card. I’ll also give some instruction to new peoples at this time.

3. Then we’ll hit the streets to distribute, shooting for groups of 3-4, rain or shine. Who knows how many groups we will have, but I know of a number of locations we can go so the more groups the merrier, and I will constantly be scouting out new areas to distribute. Some locations are 5th avenue shopping area, the park near Pike Place Market, and the park near the Union Gospel Mission.

4. When you are done you go home. I don’t want to attempt to coordinate hooking up after the event, as some groups will take longer than others. There is always the next event to tell stories. It would be nice to get an email from people who are planning to attend the night before each event, just so we know how many bags to make, but this is not a requirement.

That’s it. No politicking. No standing on a soap box. No Board of directors. Just regular people feeding those in need. This should not be such a radical concept, but it kind of is.

The first event is scheduled for October 14th.