The Eclipse Project: Helping Harrisburg's Homeless

I was a bad picture taker on Sunday and I'm tardy in making my Tuesday post because it's Wednesday! My excuse is that my refrigerator stopped working. What a mess!

Thank you, Bethany Church of the Nazarene for your kitchen, Country Gourmet at the Market and Panera Bread for your donations, those who pick up food donations and bring them to the church, Lumadue's Restaurant & Catering and Sherman's Creek Inn for a ton of pulled pork, several different barbecue sauces, cases of rolls and cases of snacks and to Eric for delivering them, and to my volunteers - Jerry, Bob, Savannah, Carol, Kaitie, Mary, Molly, and Alexa - for making it happen... I thought I was going to be really short on volunteers this past Sunday but it always works out.

Thank you to Marjorie for the Karns gift cards and to Charlton UMC for the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. And thank you to everyone who makes this possible every week, either through monetary donations or donations of items or food. Donna brought cookies and pasta salad and Keith brought four pans of food and we thankfully didn't lose power. It was a good day!

I should show my appreciation also to our friends who help us unload and set up and then tear down and pack up and to the ones who return to the table after they've eaten to say God bless you or thank you to us. My favorite thing is the hugs. ❤️

Our friends had chocolate chip, banana pancakes, chicken broccoli, rice casserole, fried rice, Salisbury steak and mashed potatoes, hot dogs, hamburger BBQ, pulled pork with three different sauces, mushroom pasta with ricotta and mozzarella, macaroni and cheese, nacho tots, chicken sausage with vegetables and rice, pb&j sandwiches, pasta salad, big salads with either tuna salad, chicken salad with grapes, or egg salad, and a bunch of other things I can't remember!

We made a plant-based buffalo chicken patty sandwich, some fried mashed potatoes in cute shapes, and vegan mac and cheese for one of our friends who doesn't eat meat. It must be hard out there to get something that suits a special diet like that so we try to accommodate. Monday night I also gave her some fruit smoothie pops, applesauce and some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. She's so polite!

I'll do my regular Tuesday post tomorrow but thank God we never lost electricity at the church kitchen! I don't know how we would have served yesterday.

Some of our friends tents are in bad condition after the storms, so if you have any of those lying around or you want to pick one on our wish list, it would be appreciated.

We have a couple requests, if anyone can help with them.

"Good day today ma'am, my name is # # # # # #, and I had been wondering if you could Sunday bring some boxers, socks, and pajamas, as well as some large jeans 32/34. That would be medium boxers. Thank you miss, have a wonderful day." He is new, just arrived 2 weeks ago, and he got himself a job but he needs size 8 and 1/2 steel toe boots.

Another gentleman requested large diabetic socks.

Another gentleman will be leaving the halfway house in a little over a week and going to another state so he has requested a suitcase to pack all his things in.

Thanks in advance if you are able to help! Please feel free to share our post.

Donations can be made at the address in our profile picture. **Please note, the wooden box on the left is for the church's food pantry. The dark gray tackle box on the right is for our homeless outreach. We have experienced some of our donations going into the church's food pantry box. It's also a great cause to donate to, but some folks have put things in it, on it, or in front of it, that were intended for us. I think we need better signage for both boxes!

Pray for our friends who are cleaning up after the storms.

As great as my team is, I don't think we're going to make it with just me and Bob serving! I need at least three more people to help serve 2:30 until 4:30 or 5:00 Sunday. We could also use another person to help clean up after for about an hour or so from 5:30 on.

Volunteer check in Friday.
Jerry, my faithful sidekick, all day.
Carol and Savannah - kitchen
Bob

Unavailable: Kathy, Sarah, Ashley #1, Kinsley, Ashley #3, Danielle, Chelsea

If I don't get more volunteers for Sunday, I'm going to have nightmares tonight. That's what I do. I have dreams that all the food is missing or no one shows up or people show up, but there seems to be no sense of urgency and no one can hear me or I'm in a car careening toward the edge of an abyss...

Thank you, Charlton UMC, for inviting me to speak about The Eclipse Project Sunday morning! High school English class book reports, you would find me hiding in the nurse's office. But this, I could talk about all day. Finally reached the point of zero nerves when speaking in front of a crowd of people!

See photos for our menu item descriptions. It was a warm one on Sunday, serving our differently sheltered friends! It's estimated that we served about 75 people at our first stop and probably 30 at our second.

Thank you Bethany Church of the Nazarene for your kitchen, Country Gourmet at the Market and Panera Bread for your food donations and to those who picked up, and everyone who donated items this week.

Forever grateful to my team of volunteers - Jerry, Sarah, Ashley, Tony, Eric, Alexa, Bob, Kathy, Chelsea, Amy, Beth, Kinsley, and Aunt Ash! Did I forget anyone?

We managed to celebrate a birthday with an ice cream cake that somehow remained frozen long enough for us to sing Happy Birthday! Whenever we have a birthday, it is up to the birthday person whether or not they share their cake. They are totally welcome to keep the whole entire thing for themselves or distribute it as they see fit. Before the birthday boy made off with his ice cream cake, he took a big fork full of it and shoved it in my mouth! And it was delicious.

Pray for our friends during the upcoming heatwave. We are accepting donations of drinks to keep them hydrated. Soda, juice, sports, drinks, water, even ice pops. They were a big hit last week. I think we handed out 180 frozen pops...

Are you having a 4th of July picnic on Saturday? If you have leftovers that were kept at a safe temperature, we can put them to good use! We were joined on Sunday by a couple who had an event where they found themselves with a lot of extra fried chicken, coleslaw, and potato salad and it went quick!

If you are interested in volunteering or donating, whether it be non-food items or ingredients or prepared dishes, please feel free to reach out!

Volunteer check in Friday for Sunday:

Jerry all day
Sue
Kinsley and Aunt Ash prep
Alexa and Eric prep and serving
Beth prep and serving first location
Kathy, Sarah, Bob all day
Chelsea and Amy serving

Unavailable: Carol

Sarah, Ashley helping Saturday in the kitchen

Sunday, we served our differently sheltered friends:
Lasagna
Macaroni and cheese
Sausage and veggies
Chicken and rice
Crispy Spam fried rice
Green beans
Thanksgiving casserole
Ham
Penne with with vodka sauce
Breakfast scramble
Peach French toast bake
Chicken broccoli fettuccine alfredo
Salad

We celebrated Jerry's birthday!

Thank you to Bethany Church of the Nazarene for your kitchen, Panera Bread for your food donation, to those who picked up food donations, to everyone who donated something this past week for our differently sheltered friends, and to my volunteers - Jerry, Donna, Kaitie, Carol, Bob, Danielle, Alexa, Amy, Ashley, Kinsley, Sarah, Kathy, George, Sunshine, and Thomas.

There was a young lady who was moving this past week and wanted to pass on some perishable items to us. Many of them were vegan/vegetarian so I contacted one of the girls we used to serve at camp who we hadn't seen visit us yet at our new location. I invited her over and she wound up with a big salad, mafalda pasta with broccolini and vegan cheese, plant-based corn dogs, plant-based wings, and broccoli bites.

Many hands make light work. We were done with cleanup by 6:30 this week!

If you'd like to volunteer, we welcome you! We prepare food from 11:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. Then we serve from 2:30 until approximately 5:00 at two different locations. We return to the church and clean up after.

All skill levels welcome! If you can stir things or chop stuff, we can use you.

We don't take anyone under 18 with us out to serve. Minors are welcome for kitchen prep as long as they are accompanied by an adult, and also welcome for cleanup after.

We don't take our friends' photos or eat their food, until everyone is served and then I make an announcement that volunteers can make themselves a plate. It's important to me that they eat first.

Words and conversations should be kept respectful to others and our surroundings. I call it "church language." We don't talk politics.

We also have an opportunity on Saturday, the first and third Saturdays of the month, to pick up food donations at 2:00 p.m. from the West Shore Farmers Market and bring them to the church.

We were joined Sunday by Hands and Feet Ministry. ❤️

I just put an order in for shirts but I can add to it. Hoping to pick up next week. If anyone is interested, please give me your sizes. Payment can be sent via PayPal, venmo, and cash app.