Outline from the Inversehalo Network:
Basic...
Bring Christmas to the outer areas of St. Augustine and St. Johns county. Serve a hot meal, cocoa, and distribute (donated) gifts to the homeless or impoverished in those areas. This allows for two strong concepts to come into focus: 1. Locations picked for Christmas, will become permanent locations for 'Lon's mobile kitchen'. 2. The community of St. Johns county will be more aware of the efforts being made to help the homeless. Which eventually sets a new standard of awareness and compassion from the 'community'.... Both of these concepts are vital for pushing forward and expanding the routine of what PUSH,FNB,Resurrection episcopal, and Inversehalo have been doing for the last 3 months. As I have mentioned before, getting to these people on the outskirts is vital to solving certain issues of health, despair, and hopelessness. Issues that everyone of us have seen while working on the census. The areas that have been chosen so far are: 1. North St. Augustine (Winn-Dixie parking lot) 2. South St. Augustine (Big-Lots parking lot) 3. 207 (across from the Epic movie theater) 4. the Main Plaza Downtown 5. Hastings (this area will be more defined after talking to the OURS center) Items that have to be thought about: Food (what kind, how much, etc) Gifts (Jenn had a good idea about getting 'churches' involved to buy particular items...) Distribution (whose really available, and where should they go?)
End Results:
1. The problem with the turn out in Hastings, is the result of us being under the assumption that their was a foundation to properly stand upon. Within the St. Augustine area P.U.S.H. and Inversehalo represent the proper foundation by which these kinds of activities have come about... I believe that the meeting next week with some of the people from Hastings will show exactly what I'm talking about...
My opinion about Hastings is that it should be taken off of the mobile kitchen list until certain "problems" are first resolved. The area is too unstable to be worked upon at this time.
2. The locations for 207+ Holmes and 312 @ Big Lots went just as planned. Although, as for a permanent spot for future feedings, the 'drop-in center' would make a better spot. I'm sure permission would need to be asked, first...
3. The Winn-Dixie Location also did well, and continuing to feed this area should start ASAP. This should also expand into the State Rd 16 area considering that many of the people who showed up to Winn-Dixie also were from the St. Rd. 16 area.
Overall, the entire venture went as planned (of course). There are some specific jobs that need to be set in stone, such as someone to monitor all the sites. Also, there needs to be a reliable list of volunteers that will control each site.
Our FINAL ANALYSIS:
we created 'FEED THE PEOPLE' : to visit click here
