SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) — This week is National Homelessness and Hunger Awareness Week and the pandemic has made community outreach crucial. Emmaus Ministry is one of the outreach groups in Syracuse that is supporting the poor, hungry, and homeless through difficult days.
Taking on the challenge of helping the homeless and reducing poverty here in Syracuse is no easy task. The city itself is one of the ten poorest cities in the nation. CEO Sheila Austin says the high poverty rates in the city combined with the negative impacts of the pandemic is why it is crucial to be helping disadvantaged groups of people right now. For many of her clients, keeping the ministry services available during the pandemic was life-changing.
“They [her clients] were in tears,” Austin said. “They were just saying ‘we’re so glad that you didn’t close because we didn’t know what we would do.'”
Many people have felt some of the negative impacts of the pandemic as it relates to food. There is almost no one who is a stranger to the scary feeling of walking into a store that usually has shelves fully stocked with food, only to find those shelves bare. But as Austin explains, the poor and homeless face additional challenges. For example, many of the Ministry’s clients have a hard time getting to the grocery store.
“The closest grocery store around here is down the street towards Nedrow and it’s probably about a good mile away,” Austin said. “Most of our people don’t have transportation. They are either walking or taking the money if they have the money for a bus pass.”
That then begs the question: what happens when the temperatures hit the 20s and 30s, and Austin’s clients don’t have the money for a buss pass? Or they have the money for a buss pass, but not enough for the food they need to buy at the grocery store?
“They would have to go to the gas station to get their food” Austin said. “And the quality of that food as you can imagine is not as good we would like people to be able to have access to.”
The effects of this malnutrition are especially felt by children who are fed this food.
“And then you throw in the educational sort of thing, you know the ability of these kids to be able to learn,” Austin said. “They don’t have the proper nutrition that they should have so that they can go to school and be able to be attentive and learn.”
Before the pandemic, Emmaus Ministry was giving out 200 meals each week. Now since mid-March they’ve seen that number quadruple as 800 people walk through their doors each week to get a hot meal.
For current clients like Latasha Handford who rely on food from the ministry almost every single day, the other option would be to go hungry.
“They have always just been there for us so without them, I don’t know where we would be right now,” Handford said.
Former Emmaus Ministry client Kirk Butler says if community outreach groups didn’t exist in Syracuse, some people would be forced to do whatever it took to feed themselves and their families, no matter the consequences.
“The jail would be full because they [poor and homeless people] would be robbing to get something to eat,” Butler said. “Not no drugs, they would be robbing to get something to eat.”
As the holiday season approaches, Austin is encouraging those who can give to do so. If you know anyone who would benefit from Emmaus Ministry’s services, you can direct them to 127 East Glen Avenue. They give out free meals from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
If you want to learn more about the ways you can contribute to Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, click here.
