The Hood River Shelter Services is opening on November 17th—they provide a warm place to stay, food, and access to local services throughout the winter. As a church, we have partnered with them over the last four years to provide meals on Sundays—thank you for all of you who have served in this way over the years!
This is a wonderful opportunity for us to love and share our resources with those in need within our community. It’s also a great way to serve as a community group, a family, or friend group. This year we are also trying something new; we will be serving lunch at church, and will be providing a shuttle to and from church for shelter guests. The shuttle will pick up before the service and drop off after the meal. Any remaining meals will be packed up and delivered to the shelter for use throughout the remainder of the day just like past years.
Sign-ups will be through the church center app this year, if you are interested please email Kelseyandgarrison@gmail.com and we can get you on the list so you can view sign-ups, or help you register with church center (it is very easy). There are separate sign-ups for both preparing the meal and driving the van. If you are interested in being a shuttle driver, reach out to office@hralliance.org and Anders can help you get certified!
Meals will be prepared in the HRAC kitchen. Each Sunday has four volunteer slots available, but if you have a larger community group that works too! The meal leader decides the menu and gathers ingredients, and the other volunteer spots just need to show up! If you need ideas for recipes, feel free to reach out! We have lots of ideas based on the favorites from previous seasons. One cool thing to note, this program has always been fully funded by the members of our church + volunteers, not a line item in our church budget. We love that out of our abundance, we can bless others.
Our prayer for this season is that more people at the shelter feel seen, known, and loved—and experience Christ’s love and grace through us, and that we also experience Christ through them.Please reach out to Kelsey and Garrison Strand if you have any questions! kelseyandgarrison@gmail.com