For more than a decade, students from Loyola College have participated in the school’s Care-a-Van program, providing the homeless two nights a week with meals, such as turkey-and-cheese sandwiches and hot chocolate, as well as toiletries.
But on Nov. 14, a Health Department representative notified the students that they needed a city license to distribute food, and that distribution via a van could not be licensed, since licensing would require on-site hot and cold running water for volunteers serving the food to wash their hands. The college suspended the program, but students rebelled, and resumed distributing food to the local homeless anyway in a nearby park.
Facing a problem with the kind of publicity that might be associated with arresting people for feeding the poor during the Christmas season, city officials offered to compromise.
Under the agreement, the students will continue to be allowed to provide food for two more months, while city officials try to find a more permanent place for the charity work that complies with city regulations, according to Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, Baltimore’s health commissioner.
Glenn Spindler
I Have commercial kitchen equipment
we are currently building mission feeding in downtown baltimore with Vineyard Comm Church in Millersville md
How can we help.
JDZ
Contact:
Care A Van
Service Coordinator
Erin Timmeny, x2989
ektimmeny@loyola.edu
Care-A-Van is a program whereby a small group of students go into the heart of Baltimore City to offer food, drink and conversation to women and men who are living on the streets. Students serve and interact with an average of 75 women and men who are homeless and/or materially poor. Volunteers are needed to make sandwiches, fundraise and help distribute the sandwiches and beverages. Volunteer commitments may be weekly, biweekly or monthly. Anyone wishing to volunteer with the distribution of sandwiches must have at least one prior serving experience in a meal program in Baltimore City (either Beans & Bread or Our Daily Bread). Care-A-Van is a unique opportunity for students to hear and learn first hand about homelessness from the women and men who have had to make the streets “their home.â€
Volunteer Hours:
Monday and Tuesday evenings
5:30 – 7:30 p.m. (serving)
Sandwich making:
Monday 3-4 p.m. (tentative)
http://www.loyola.edu/ccsj/service/choosing_a_site/listings.html
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