Hope for the Holidays

Happy Holidays! We hope everyone is having a great holiday season, and we are working to make sure that the homeless communities in Knoxville can have one as well. Too often we take things for granted like warmth when we’re cold, a place to sleep, or food when we’re hungry. These are things that the people in downtown Knoxville can’t take advantage of because they don’t know where they will be at any given time or what will be available to them. We have started a community outreach where we go in to downtown Knoxville each Thursday and cook breakfast with the homeless people that are living in tents. For Thanksgiving, we set everything up to bring as complete a Thanksgiving experience as possible so that it would soothe the sting of not being able for whatever reason to spend the holiday with their families. It was such a success and an amazing experience that we have decided to do something similar for Christmas. We want to take it a step further and make sure that each person we serve will also get a gift – a ‘blessing bag’ to try and make their lives a little bit better, a little bit warmer, and help them realize they are not overlooked, their lives matter as much as the next person. We have put together an assortment of items that include the following:

 

- Drawstring bag

- Fleece blanket

- Toothbrush/Toothpaste

- Floss

- Shampoo

- Bar Soap

- Lotion

- Hat/Gloves/Scarves

- Hand Warmers

- Military can openers

- Chapstick

- Socks

- Mylar blanket

- Spork

- Washcloth

- Razors

- Rain Poncho

- Deodorant

 

We currently have enough to give to ~150 people thanks to a generous donor, but we would like to have enough to give out to 400 people by Christmas Day. For Thanksgiving we served over 300 people and we are expecting more for Christmas. We will be serving a pasta dinner that will include pasta with meat sauce, pasta with alfredo sauce, garlic bread sticks and pie. Any help that can be provided is appreciated – trust me, even a little goes a long way when it comes to purchasing supplies and if everyone gives a little, we can reach our goals. To get the word out to as many as possible, please share the link. For those that want to contribute their time rather than giving a gift, you are welcome to come out and join us – message either me, Mary Bates or J.N. Marcus on Facebook for a location. We will be there from around 12:30 PM to whenever the food runs out. Again – Happy Holidays!