After several months of feeding the homeless and impoverished in Shawnee three times per week, a group of volunteers is looking to recruit additional helpers — especially churches — in preparation of the upcoming winter months.
Debbie Campbell and Kim Robinson, two of the seven core members of Hope 2 Offer, said they have been providing meals for several people at Woodland Veterans Park for about a year or more with the assistance of many volunteers and several local churches. However, as the population of homeless and impoverished has grown within the city, the need for volunteers has increased, they said.
“We’ve seen a real boost in the number of volunteers the past couple weeks,” Robinson said. “But I believe the churches should be taking care of the people in their communities. I believe people want to help, they’re just not sure how and we want to lead them to where they can help. But we want churches to be involved.”
Robinson said she sees many homeless people at the park when she helps with providing food and conversation to them on Sundays but she said there are those with homes who also need help.
“As you work around this, you see there are people who might have shelter but not other things they need,” she said. “We really feel like we’re supposed to be there to help — that’s not us, that’s God.”
H20 members and volunteers visit the park Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays to offer a meal, a drink and friendship, Campbell said. But with most of the volunteers having full-time jobs, it can sometimes be difficult to provide the additional fellowship those who come to the park want and need.
“If you’re not with them, living life with them, then you think they’re just bums and they’re not — they are people, just like us,” Campbell said. “They really want the conversation and sometimes, they just need someone to listen, to minister, to be a friend to them and to pray with them. If we can just get people to the park, they’ll see they are people just like us, they were just dealt a different hand. Some you can help make a change, some you can’t but we love them all just the same.”
Robinson said the group isn’t looking for monetary donations at this time, as between the churches already participating, individual assistance and a grant — overseen by the Shawnee Community Foundation — that was awarded to the organization to cover the cost for Tuesday and Thursday meals, those needs are being met.
“Some churches provide everything for us for Sundays or a group of churches will work together to provide it,” she said. “Sometimes, it’s hard though to know how many people there might be. We try to have enough for 100 people but the past couple weeks, we’ve had more than that and once, we had to buy pizza for the rest because we ran out of food. It’s difficult to know how many there might be; it’s different each week.”
Campbell and Robinson said in addition to needing more volunteers, the group said they would like to begin collecting items that will be needed for the homeless in the upcoming winter months.
“With winter coming on, we know we’re going to need socks, shoes, sleeping bags, blankets, towels, shampoos, backpacks and other items,” Campbell said.
She said it is hard for the homeless to carry around many items at once, so backpacks help them keep their belongings together as they seek shelter throughout the days and evenings.
Robinson said it is also difficult for the homeless, who often have only one or two sets of clothing to wear, to find somewhere to bathe or to wash their clothes. However, another organization has offered to help H2O help the homeless with those issues on a 90-day trial basis.
“Something we see over and over is our friends don’t have a way to take showers or do their laundry and the Salvation Army is filled up a lot,” she said. “So we talked with Dr. Robert Dawson and Larry Guest with Mission Shawnee and they agreed to open their doors to let us use their showers and to hook up a washer and dryer on a trial basis for 90 days. We’re going to work around their schedule without affecting their schedule. We’re hoping to start offering the showers in mid-September.”
Robinson said H2O is meeting with Mission Shawnee members Friday to work out the details of the arrangement and to discuss other ways the two organizations might be able to help one another.
Still, she and Campbell said they believe churches in the community should become more involved with the efforts of those who are helping the homeless and impoverished and should visit the park themselves to meet those who need their help.
“Those who are able to come need to come and see for themselves,” Campbell said. “It’s different than reading about it or being told. It’s an eye opener — in a good way; it’s a blessing. It’s just been a blessing for us to help. If I miss one day, it’s a loss for me.”
Robinson agreed.
“It’s not about the money, or anyone giving a lot of money, it’s about people coming together,” she said. “If the churches would pull together, it would go so far beyond where we are now. The more you go down there, the more you want to go down there. The things they need are things you have that you don’t even think of having, yet they will give away what little they have to someone who has even less. We could learn a lot about community by watching them. And you know, God has wired us to want to help and to be used by him. He wants us to love our neighbors and if we’re ignoring them, we’re not loving them.”
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After several months of feeding the homeless and impoverished in Shawnee three times per week, a group of volunteers is looking to recruit additional helpers — especially churches — in preparation of the upcoming winter months.
Debbie Campbell and Kim Robinson, two of the seven core members of Hope 2 Offer, said they have been providing meals for several people at Woodland Veterans Park for about a year or more with the assistance of many volunteers and several local churches. However, as the population of homeless and impoverished has grown within the city, the need for volunteers has increased, they said.
“We’ve seen a real boost in the number of volunteers the past couple weeks,” Robinson said. “But I believe the churches should be taking care of the people in their communities. I believe people want to help, they’re just not sure how and we want to lead them to where they can help. But we want churches to be involved.”
Robinson said she sees many homeless people at the park when she helps with providing food and conversation to them on Sundays but she said there are those with homes who also need help.
“As you work around this, you see there are people who might have shelter but not other things they need,” she said. “We really feel like we’re supposed to be there to help — that’s not us, that’s God.”
H20 members and volunteers visit the park Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays to offer a meal, a drink and friendship, Campbell said. But with most of the volunteers having full-time jobs, it can sometimes be difficult to provide the additional fellowship those who come to the park want and need.
“If you’re not with them, living life with them, then you think they’re just bums and they’re not — they are people, just like us,” Campbell said. “They really want the conversation and sometimes, they just need someone to listen, to minister, to be a friend to them and to pray with them. If we can just get people to the park, they’ll see they are people just like us, they were just dealt a different hand. Some you can help make a change, some you can’t but we love them all just the same.”
Robinson said the group isn’t looking for monetary donations at this time, as between the churches already participating, individual assistance and a grant — overseen by the Shawnee Community Foundation — that was awarded to the organization to cover the cost for Tuesday and Thursday meals, those needs are being met.
“Some churches provide everything for us for Sundays or a group of churches will work together to provide it,” she said. “Sometimes, it’s hard though to know how many people there might be. We try to have enough for 100 people but the past couple weeks, we’ve had more than that and once, we had to buy pizza for the rest because we ran out of food. It’s difficult to know how many there might be; it’s different each week.”
Campbell and Robinson said in addition to needing more volunteers, the group said they would like to begin collecting items that will be needed for the homeless in the upcoming winter months.
“With winter coming on, we know we’re going to need socks, shoes, sleeping bags, blankets, towels, shampoos, backpacks and other items,” Campbell said.
She said it is hard for the homeless to carry around many items at once, so backpacks help them keep their belongings together as they seek shelter throughout the days and evenings.
Robinson said it is also difficult for the homeless, who often have only one or two sets of clothing to wear, to find somewhere to bathe or to wash their clothes. However, another organization has offered to help H2O help the homeless with those issues on a 90-day trial basis.
“Something we see over and over is our friends don’t have a way to take showers or do their laundry and the Salvation Army is filled up a lot,” she said. “So we talked with Dr. Robert Dawson and Larry Guest with Mission Shawnee and they agreed to open their doors to let us use their showers and to hook up a washer and dryer on a trial basis for 90 days. We’re going to work around their schedule without affecting their schedule. We’re hoping to start offering the showers in mid-September.”
Robinson said H2O is meeting with Mission Shawnee members Friday to work out the details of the arrangement and to discuss other ways the two organizations might be able to help one another.
Still, she and Campbell said they believe churches in the community should become more involved with the efforts of those who are helping the homeless and impoverished and should visit the park themselves to meet those who need their help.
“Those who are able to come need to come and see for themselves,” Campbell said. “It’s different than reading about it or being told. It’s an eye opener — in a good way; it’s a blessing. It’s just been a blessing for us to help. If I miss one day, it’s a loss for me.”
Robinson agreed.
“It’s not about the money, or anyone giving a lot of money, it’s about people coming together,” she said. “If the churches would pull together, it would go so far beyond where we are now. The more you go down there, the more you want to go down there. The things they need are things you have that you don’t even think of having, yet they will give away what little they have to someone who has even less. We could learn a lot about community by watching them. And you know, God has wired us to want to help and to be used by him. He wants us to love our neighbors and if we’re ignoring them, we’re not loving them.”
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