About Inn From The Cold

Monday, February 21, 2011

Shelter update for 3 night activation

The shelter is closed tonight, after 3 nights activation. Very good chance it will reopen again soon, as an Arctic cold front is coming our way.  I've extended the volunteer schedule  out through the weekend, so kindly confirm the shift proposed, cancel or suggest another shift.  My best guess is we'll open again Wednesday night, but that's just a guess -- I'd like to be ready to open as early as tomorrow.

Note to breakfast shift volunteers: we have new and improved hours.  The breakfast shift will now start at 6:30 am, rather than 6 am, as we're finding we have lots of time to make breakfast before the guests wake up.  Enjoy your sleep-in.

We had very few people the past few nights: 2, 3 and 4 -- all familiar faces and it was great to see them.  We had really outstanding meals: turkey pot pie, mashed potatoes, salads, baked chicken, a Greek meal, apple crisp, eggs, pancakes, home made baked beans.    It was a small enough group that we were able to sit around one round table for eating and it really made for a nice social gathering.   

Disappointing that more people didn't come to spend the night and enjoy the food and socializing. I've been asking our guests why more people don't come to shelters (Richmond House had one person the first night and zero the next) and there are dozens of homeless people in Richmond (some would say hundreds).  Last Wednesday was cheque day so some people had money to help with other accommodations.  Some may not know the shelter is open.  And some may already be in a spring mindset with the  longer daylight hours and flowers up in some gardens and don't even think about the shelter.  When you are living the lives most of our guests live:  their efforts focussed on scraping up whatever they need to get through  another day, it's easy to not even think about a service like ours that's only open sporadically.  Another reason why Richmond needs more permanent shelter spaces, more permanent housing etc 

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