February 2021 Update

This is not a picture of one of our homeless or even our fair city but it was someone/somewhere in Memphis during the week of February 15 2021.

Yes the snow was beautiful while we sat in our warm and cozy homes looking out the windows. But nine full days of freezing temperatures in February in Memphis did not make ideal situations for neighbors whether they be homeless or living inside where there was not proper insulation and heating. And then amidst all that, we were an MLGW boil water advisory. Bottled water flying off the shelves left our friends struggling because they didn't even have a place to boil water.

Still somehow neighbors, those in need, started coming. 15 a day and slowly built up over the week to 80 a day with snow and ice still on the ground. They came to our St. Vincent de Paul food mission for a warm meal and bottled water. They said we were the only place open but I don't know that for sure.

Eliot, our kitchen manager, could have closed any of those days and we encouraged him to do so but he could not bear the thought of even one hungry, desperate person coming to our door and he not being there to provide a meal and an encouraging word. So he opened and served every day during that week of Feb. 15th. Couple of days he did it by himself but then as the week progressed a couple of really dedicated volunteers showed up to help.

Alley on the north side of the building. Right at the serving door. Eliot de-iced the area as much as he could but as you know it snowed again the next day.

This is an image of the parking lot. Volunteers, even if they could get to the food mission might not have been able to safely navigate the parking lot.

Eliot on left and Ian on the right handled it by themselves one of those days. Cooking, plating and serving. Ian is through Volunteer Odyssey and has been volunteering regularly for months.

Left to right: Eliot, Aaron and Emmanuel. These are other brave volunteers who came to serve our guests and to help Eliot. Aaron got stuck in the parking lot. Still chuckling about that one. Aaron and Emmanual come on a regular basis about 4 times a month but not on the same days.

Because of the weather St. Mary's Episcopal School had to cancel a faculty luncheon that was to be catered by Grecian Gourmet Taverns. They donated the meal to us and the GGT delivered them to our door. Beautiful salads, some with chicken, lamb and some just salads. Our guests loved them.

Oh did I say lots and lots of salads? Thank you to Grecian Gourmet Taverns and to Tracey Black, Assistant to Assistant Head of School St. Mary's Episcopal School.

Also during the month of February The Dominican Community of Schools St. Agnes and St. Benedict held a Souper Bowl Canned Good Drive at their schools. We arranged for St. Anne and St. Michael's to pick up the canned goods because both of these St. Vincent de Paul Conferences have food pantries every Saturday. Approximately 3,000 cans were picked up at each school. And the kiddos were there to help load. Many thanks to Beth Odom, Director for reaching out to us and making this happen.

Thank you St. Agnes students!

Thank you, St. Benedict students!

And last but never the least "Julie Ledet" or as Eliot calls her "Superwoman"

Julie is a very active member of St. Vincent de Paul St. Anne and volunteers on Saturday food pantry team one. She is also a very valuable and busy volunteer at Catholic Charities. She has recently started helping at the Ozanam Center to get us organized. She also helps Eliot in the kitchen and serving whenever she is there and we are short handed. THANK YOU JULIE. I am so glad to call you my sister in Christ.

Here is the chapel at the Ozanam Center before Julie came to help. We were cluttered with so many generous donations that never found a home in the building… and how the chapel looked after Julie took control:

This stairwell did not get a before picture but it was up to the ceiling with dishes, pots and pans and much more. This is it now.

This is our newly organized pantry. You can actually see everything you have to work with and much easier to take inventory for things you need.

After Julie finished all the downstairs she proceeded upstairs to organize our SVDP storage space.We had tons of things that had been donated over the past 10 years that had never been used so she found them new homes.

Now instead of going out and buying new kitchen pans, trays or crockpots, you can see everything at a glance. This area is not just for kitchen items but Christmas and Friends of the Poor Walk items.

Thank you, Julie...you must be exhausted! Her husband, Stu, says she needs to start a business...I agree!

Her desire to help is big and her heart is even bigger.

February was a crazy month for all of us but especially those in need...all around us are those in need. Keep your masks on, get those vaccines when you can and let's get to some kind of normalcy. One of these days we will invite our guests back in the building to sit down and be served with dignity.

God Bless you all and love one another.