New Normal
Hello all! Yes, we are still alive and working face-to-face with our outdoor friends. And we are way overdue for letting you know how things are going. Let me share our weekly “normal” so you can get a feel for what we do.
Sundays haven’t changed. We meet outdoors so Covid rules mean masks and spreading out a little more, but we never missed a hot lunch and conversations with our friends. We were told for most of the lockdowns that HOMEpdx was the last hot plated meal in the city. I hope that wasn’t true, but every other hot meal I know of was being served in a box or a bag. Oh, and we still do bingo and trivia for quarters. (With the shortage of change we end up buying back the quarters with dollar bills, but that works fine.)
Tuesday night burritos is the other thing that hasn’t changed. Fifteen years and counting. We are making our own now, thanks to a wonderful kitchen crew of outdoor friends who come in every Tuesday to make all kinds of things – homemade sweet breads and cookies for example – in addition to the burritos.
Our weekdays have changed a lot. Right after covid hit we were doing lunches all five days in the Park Blocks. That was a lot of effort so we’ve handed off to other groups as they’ve stepped forward. Instead of lunches we’ve been able to resume community-based showers, which means 12 people coming into the courtyard for snacks, electricity, conversations and sometimes music while they take turns at showers, food boxes and a clothing closet. It’s so much better than 30 minute blocks of in-and-out showers with little conversation.
Wednesdays are all out in the field, so to speak. We start at sunrise walking coffee, hot chocolate, snacks and sack lunches around the streets. This is the “coffee run” that we’ve done for years. It’s a chance to bless people as they wake up and meet our neighbors. When we get back we put together some hot food and head out again on the “camp run” we started a year ago. This involves 2-4 vehicles, about 700 pounds of pantry food from the Food Bank, sack lunches and hot lunches all delivered to a rotation of camps too far out to easily access most meal offerings. Instead of packing a standard food box we let people “shop the cars” and pick what they want. This enables us to ask wat people really wand, and look at what’s left over, to dial in what to bring to our camping friends. In addition to better matching food to need we also get plenty of time to talk to people and hear their stories. We’ll be passing some of those along in the coming weeks.
And finally, for us, is Thursday. Part of the day is simply restocking and cleaning our storeroom, but the favorite part is another new event – the “bike run.” Cody and Matt, our new staff, noticed another group of people living outside of downtown but still close in. These are people with various reasons for getting away from the crowding, intensity, and noise of downtown, but the trade off is less access to services. So every Thursday two bike trailers are loaded up with sack lunches and various supplies as we have them (pantry food, fuel, tarps, etc.) and pedaled out to the camps.
So that’s the current weekly cycle for us. As we deliver food and supplies we are able to talk with our outdoor friends and make connections. Mixed in are the face-to-face follow ups we do with our friends – returning with special requests, doing jail visits, DMV trips, helping with moves, and so on.
What do you think?
