Community Bridge has been feeding people who live in the encampments or on
the streets. We work with Minnesota Central Kitchen, a program of second
harvest, to provide 650 meals a week to these neighbors. We have learned a lot
along the way about the people and about the problems they face when living in
an encampment. The winter was especially hard due to cold and snow. We now
face problems related to heat. We have set up a way to bring drinking water as
well as hot food. We wonder what is the best way to provide showers, avoid heat
related problems, help people deal with mental health issues, addiction issues
and find permanent housing.
We have learned that the people we serve are better seen as unhoused rather
than homeless because most people have been able to create a home in the
encampments. A home is a place of refuge and a place where a person feels save
and accepted. We have met families with children, elderly, folks with health
challenges, young people estranged from their parents and people in poverty as
rents and housing cost continue to climb who have created a home and look
suspiciously at those who offer alternative indoor shelters. The issues are
complex and as unique as the individuals we have met. We don’t have answers
we try to listen and learn from our neighbors and do what we are able. We talk
among ourselves about showers, advocacy, job possibilities, ways to get laundry
done and most importantly how to be respectful, kind and open to all that we
meet each time we go out.
If you would like to join us in this work we need people with open hearts, time
and a desire to make a difference. There is shopping, cooking, packing food,
driving, advocacy, and more.
Please give me a call to get involved.
Mary Lundquist: 612-321-1967