From the News & Record, letters to the editor, 08/20/2008:
Urban Ministry serves homeless breakfast
Your article, “Discovering a need, blogger takes action†(A1, Aug. 14), contained incorrect information. It stated, “Hospitality House is the only place in the city that serves breakfast to the homeless.â€
I have the opportunity to serve breakfast every Thursday morning at Greensboro Urban Ministry, where between 70 and 150 homeless people are served each morning. These breakfasts are prepared and served by members of First Lutheran Church, Lutheran Church of Our Father, the Episcopal Churches of Greensboro and others.
Each church/organization is responsible for one morning a week. Volunteers arrive at 6 a.m., cook, serve, clean and provide an uplifting message for the guests.
The opportunities in Greensboro to help those in need are endless. Let’s all do our part to show we care.
Susan Wilson
Greensboro
My response:
A follow-up article the next day stated:
“The nonprofit [Hospitality House] is the only place in the city that provides breakfast to people who are hungry every weekday except Wednesday, when the Greensboro Urban Ministry has a community breakfast. Urban Ministry otherwise serves breakfast only to those who stay overnight at the Weaver House.”
The letter writer, Ms. Wilson, serves breakfast for Weaver House residents. The Hospitality House serves unsheltered homeless people and other hungry people. Both are needed and appreciated.
We have also learned that St. Paul Baptist Church serves breakfast on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings. That location is a little over a mile southeast of the downtown area. (Glenwood Presbyterian and Nu Life Church serve breakfast on Saturdays. As far as we know, no one is currently serving breakfast on Sundays.)
The letter writer is correct that the opportunities are endless, because the need here is great. There are many homeless and hungry people in Greensboro. We have more homeless people than we have space in homeless shelters.
We are blessed to have people like Miss Terry at the Hospitality House who daily feed and serve those who would otherwise go without. Those of us who volunteered last week got a glimpse of how much work Miss Terry does, and we are even more appreciative now of her efforts to love and serve our friends.
Cara Michele
We served at least 100 for breakfast on Thursday and 150 for breakfast on Friday, and 150+ at Friday’s dinner. We served a different group of homeless folks than Greensboro Urban Ministry. There are a lot of homeless people in Greensboro. Many more than most people realize. And we still didn’t serve them all.
