HOME VAN NEWSLETTER 1/10/09

I'M BACK

Some of you may have tried to email me in the past 3 weeks. We went out of town for a few days at Christmas and returned to the great-grandmother of all computer crashes. It has taken this long for me to get back online. First of all, I want to thank the hundreds and hundreds of people who donated Christmas stockings for our homeless friends. On December 22, we had the best Christmas party ever! The Eastside Jazz Band came downtown and played Christmas carols during our meal. Pat Abbit and the ladies from Dining for a Cause were there with 300 stockings (in addition to the many we passed out in the woods and elsewhere the previous Thursday). They also brought 4 cases of organic oranges and set up a desert table with pies and cakes and cookies. We had our little meal, along with Kristine MacDougal's soup and the homemade cornbread and other goodies furnished every week by Peggy Henderson and her friends from DCF. All sense of being "service providers" disappeared - we were just partying with friends, the best friends a person could ask for. There were smiles and hugs - thank yous, Merry Christmas, God bless yous circulating everywhere. The Eastside Jazz Band stayed on, after we left to go spread Christmas cheer to our Lynch Parkers, and kept on playing. Granny led the homeless folks in singing carols, from her wheelchair, the biggest smile you've ever seen on her face. The courage and good cheer of our homeless friends continues to amaze me. Thank you everyone and a special thank you to the band - we've never been classier or more Christmasy, thanks to you all!

HUNGER SAGA

The Home Van has never before closed down during the last week of a month, since that is the most challenging time for our homeless friends, whose tiny disability and social security checks are long gone (if they get a check). This year we were pretty fried and decided to sneak away for a few days at Christmas. After all, we reasoned, St. Francis House and the Salvation Army were serving, and churches also do extra outreach at Christmas. We did have a wonderful and restorative vacation. When we got back I called Ellen Allen to see if anything was going on that I should know about. Ellen has created her own volunteer job as the Home Van's friend-in-residence at the downtown library. She talks to our folks there, takes people to appointments, helps with paperwork, and in dealing with emergencies. Ellen told me that the Salvation Army had closed down for a whole week (and longer, as it turned out) to do termite control and sanitizing. In addition, there was less outreach than usual on the part of churches. . And then there's the 130-person limit at St. Francis House. As a result, it was Thursday and a good many of our friends had not eaten since Tuesday. Freeman and I went down to Bread of the Mighty Food Bank. Since they were going into the long New Year's weekend, they were giving away all the deli sandwiches and fried chicken in their refrigerators. We left with 3 banana boxes full of this bounty. We loaded them into the back of Ellen's trunk, along with several cases of Vienna sausages, many granola bars and crackers, and a large pail of tangerines Ellen had been given. Peop[le ate and ate and ate - thank God! To be walking around starving in 20 and 30 degree weather is life-threatening, especially since many of our friends are dealing with serious illnesses.

The Salvation Army was supposed to be back serving dinner the following Tuesday, but, at the last moment, they put a sign on their door that "there would be no evening meal." Once again, this sign was being read by people who had not had a meal since the previous day, if then! The Food Bank was closed by then, but Ellen loaded up her truck with cases of Vienna Sausages, granola bars, and a thermos of hot spiced tea and went downtown. No one should be standing in a parkng lot in 30-degree weather eating Vienna sausages and granola bars, as their only meal of the day - no one. Still, Ellen tells me she was met with smiles and gratitude. She said to me, "How do they do it? How can they keep smiling and being grateful for every little thing?"

Liz McCulloch is one of the folks who goes downtown regularly with food for those turned away from St. Francis House - whether it be a bucket from KFC or some peanut butter sandwiches. She says that more people are needed. So, if you as an individual, or maybe a church or civic group you belong to, can join in this effort it would be really, really helpful. People need extra calories to live outdoors in this weather - as many extra calories as they can get!

Also, a reminder, the Alachua County Housing Authority still needs more blankets and jackets. They are located downtown, on the same street and the same side of the street as the giant clock, in a two-story green Victorian House (the D'aCosta House) almost to 8th Avenue.

The Home Van continues to need small canned meats like Vienna Sausages. Meat helps people stay alive in very cold weather.

Many people have been asking the City Commission to lift the 130-person limit at St. Francis House, to no avail. Joe Jackson and Bob Freeman entertained a small sliver of hope that perhaps the commissioners would take this action if they understood that people REALLY ARE STARVING. So they went to Citizen's Comment at the January 7 meeting and told the commission the whole disaster of the Salvation Army closing, people not eating... Commissioner Donovon was the lone voice who supported the idea of temporarily suspending the limit. He wanted the city to suspend the limit for 60 days and, in the meantime, to work on actually finding ways to disperse meal services around the community. He put a motion on the floor to that effect, but it died for lack of a second. Mayor Hanrahan was absent from this meeting. The other podiumites sat there with hard, mean faces and did nothing. Apparently, poor people starving just doesn't bother them.

CAN YOU HELP A TECHNICALLY CHALLENGED GEEZERETTE?

Financial donations to the Home Van are way down. Much of this is probably due to our "jobless recovery' (an oxymoron from morons). Some may be due to the fact that people aren't dealing with cash and checks anymore. We would like to be able to accept credit and debit card donations online, but we have no clue how to go about it. Can anyone help with that information? We do have a website - a little blog I set up with "highlilghts from the Home Van Newsletter." You can find it at http://homevan.blogspot.com/

POETRY FOR CARL

I rarely see Carl. He receives a disability check and manages to be fairly self-sustaining. Last fall he did come to the van and ask if I could get him a couple of poetry books. I did. Last week I saw him again. He told me he enjoyed the books a lot. He said he had found some poems at the library, called psalms, and they were the most wonderful poems he had ever read. Could I get him the psalms and some other poetry books as well? I told him I could. He then gave me a very serious look and said, "Poetry is important, and I want to pay for it." He pulled a worn ten-dollar bill from his pocket and gave it to me. I don't know what planet I am from, originally, but wherever it is, Carl is from that planet also.

God bless you all!

love, arupa
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The Home Van needs peanut butter, jelly, Vienna sausages, white tube socks, candles, tarps and tents. Call 372-4825 to arrange for drop-offs. Financial donations to the Home Van are tax deductible. Checks should be made out to St. Vincent de Paul, earmarked for the Home Van, and mailed to 307 SE 6th Street, Gainesville, FL 32601