A Good Summer Job
By Shelia Bator
Most PADS
volunteers are in one of the 25 or so cooking groups who prepare and serve
dinners 6 nights a week from October through April. Attention and effort
tend to be concentrated on what we call the “warming season“, making certain we
have cooks and servers for each of those evenings for all of those months.
Summer at PADS has always been somewhat different. There have been no regular evening meals or services, although case management continues all day every weekday. The case managers and staff have also provided daytime “emergency services“,--toiletries, clothing and bag lunches and showers.
And this
summer, volunteers will be providing daytime emergency services, as well as
guest ID cards, mail and message delivers and bus passes under direction of the
case managers. This will allow the case managers and staff to concentrate on
the vital work that only they can do.
Such services are available on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 10:30 until 11:30am. In addition, a group from St. Barnabas parish has already been serving breakfast each Saturday morning. Other groups will be serving dinner for Bridging the Gap participants on Tuesday evenings. (Bridging the Gap is a program for guests who by being in recovery, in school or by employment have taken significant steps towards self sufficiency.)