Shepherd's Table provides help to people who are homeless or in need by providing meals, social services, medical support, clothing, and other assistance in an effective and compassionate manner. The food services program is at the core of our mission, and this ongoing project ensures that we can continue to provide nutritious meals to our community. During the pandemic, we continued serving meals every day, and started a new program to distribute meals to families and children in need.
We live in an affluent County, but many of our neighbors in Montgomery County are experiencing homelessness or living in poverty. Based on the last point-in-time survey (2020), there are 9,763 homeless individuals in the Washington metropolitan region, with 670 from Montgomery County. Many of our clients suffer from mental and physical disabilities, unemployment, addictions, or other issues that result in homelessness or being at a disadvantage to be independent or succeed in our society.
The food services program provides for the person's basic need of hunger, and this is the first step in helping them survive and move forward in their lives. Many are experiencing homelessness or have limited funds, and are able to access a healthy, nutritious meal at Shepherd's Table. This enables them to use their funds to pay for housing, rent, or other bills. The food service program serves a critical need in our community, to help people survive and make progress in their lives.
Providing for a human's basic need for food allows them to be able to focus on all their other needs, such as taking care of their health, finding a job, housing, and gaining independence. Our long term hope for every individual is for them to gain the help they need to become self-sustaining. For some, it may take a couple days or a couple of weeks, while it may take others much longer. This project's budget would allow us to provide 2,000 meals to our neighbors in need.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
