"For as many 1.6 million Americans, home sweet home this Thanksgiving weekend is likely to be a homeless shelter or some form of transitional housing."
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When most people think about the holidays, they envision spending time with family, preparing (and consuming) large meals, and enjoying a few days off from work. For many Americans, however, the holidays can be a time of intense stress, struggle, and fear. Some may not have access to food. Others may not have a safe place to stay.
To address these issues, we must realize that homelessness and hunger sometimes appear differently than we expect. They influence the lives of more than just the people we see on the streets-- affecting hospitality, retail, childcare, and many other industry workers who are in unstable and impermanent housing conditions.
For families that are struggling to make ends meet, Thanksgiving can be a race to make childcare arrangements and scrounge enough together to make a nutritious meal for their family members. For some college students, Thanksgiving break can mean being displaced from scholarship subsidized dormitory housing and forced to sleep in parks and covered parking lots during the holiday. High school students relying on schools for food or day shelter may be forced into public venues that are unsafe, and may be unable to obtain proper meals for the long weekend.
These groups of people-- family units, women, and youth-- are not what we might picture when we think about hunger and homelessness. Yet they are the reality.
UWFK's goal this holiday is to provide assistance for these "invisible" groups. Our funds, through programs at local food pantries, provide bags of groceries for those who cannot afford to cook a Thanksgiving meal this year. Our funds at emergency shelters provide housing for youth below the age of 18 that have nowhere else to go.
Many people in the Keys community who are homeless, displaced, or unable to feed their families this holiday could benefit from the services of local nonprofits. UWFK hopes to make these resources more visible so that no one is forced to suffer alone this holiday. Please help us in our mission to become a leader in community caring by sharing the links below. You never know who might be in need!
Resources
Key West:
Florida Keys Outreach Coalition (food pantry)
SHAL (KOTS emergency shelter)
Star of the Sea Mission Outreach (food pantry)
Samuel's House (emergency shelter for women and children)
Metropolitan Community Church (soup kitchen and food pantry)
Project Lighthouse (emergency shelter for youth up to age 17)
Big Pine:
St. Peter Catholic Church (food pantry)
Marathon:
KAIR (food pantry, also gives Thanksgiving baskets full of food for families)
Independence Cay (hot meals every day at lunch time)
Domestic Abuse Shelter (emergency shelter for women and children of domestic violence)
Islamorada:
First Baptist Church of Islamorada (food pantry and soup kitchen)
Tavernier:
Burton Memorial Church (food pantry and hot meals provided Thursday evenings)
Florida Keys Children's Shelter (emergency housing for youth up to age 17)
Key Largo:
St. Justin Martyr (food pantry)
by Chelsea Wait
