Homeless made it happen.

 

The original Open Door Food Kitchen has been a staple in our community for years. Anyone who was hungry was welcome to come and enjoy a meal and some fellowship with others.

I believe it was June of 2019 when the Open Door Food Kitchen was moving into a brand-new, state-of-the-art building, ready to begin the process of filling empty bellies. The new location was about a mile away from the original. Our community was heavily involved in building the new Open Door Food Kitchen.

The city of St. Joseph and the Chamber of Commerce were very proud of what they had accomplished. They were doing news interviews and boasting about how good of a job they had done. They were eager for the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

There was still one big problem: all of the tables and chairs were a mile away at the original Open Door Food Kitchen. It would be impossible to open the new facility without seating arrangements available.

Everyone who was so involved and so proud of what they did all disappeared. I believe it was a Saturday morning when a group of us who were experiencing homelessness took action.

There were about six of us, and we all gathered together at the original location and waited for a moving truck. We were determined to make this move happen.

We all worked together to fold up every table and chair and load them into the back of the moving truck. We then all walked together over to the new location to meet the moving truck.

We then unloaded every chair and table and set them up in the parking lot. We all again worked together as we power-washed every single table and chair, top to bottom, front to back. We then sanitized everything by hand, making sure everything was properly cleaned.

It was about halfway through the day, and it was getting close to lunchtime. Our group that volunteered our time and labor sat at one table in the parking lot. Six or seven men who were experiencing homelessness were the very first people to ever be served lunch at the brand-new, state-of-the-art Open Door Food Kitchen.

It was a brown paper sack lunch that contained a sandwich, potato chips, cookies, and a soda pop. Nevertheless, we were the first to ever be served and enjoy lunch.

After lunch, we finished our job power-washing and sanitizing. We then moved every single table and chair into the new kitchen and set them up for use the following day.

The kitchen was ready to open.

When they had the grand opening ribbon-cutting ceremony, a couple of us who were experiencing homelessness were invited to take part. It was us who were invited to stand behind the ribbon as it was cut, not the city leaders and Chamber of Commerce. We represented what the Open Door Food Kitchen was all about.

It became our kitchen.

It was by the grace of a group of men that made it possible for our brand-new Open Door Food Kitchen to continue its mission. We are forever a part of our Open Door Food Kitchen.

This one is for us guys, we did it!

❤️🥙🥘🍛🍲🥖🥞🥫🥝🥨🥚🥒🥕🥐