Alumni Serve at Father Joe's
Harvard Alumni give back to our community during the holiday season
An evenly split team of volunteers (half alumni and half family members) gathered on Saturday December 7th to serve dinner to the homeless residents at St. Vincent de Paul Village. The Village is a partner of Father Joe's Villages, and is one of three locations that provides 887 transitional housing beds for up to a year in duration before placement in affordable housing and other alternatives. The program has a shared living component to it where individuals have assigned responsibilities which can be referenced on resumes. It is also a very secure and protected environment where the front desk is not able to disclose whether or not an individual resides on the campus for the safety of those who have escaped domestic violence.
The gymnasium attached to the kitchen had plenty of table space and was turned into a winter wonderland with decorations to add to the holiday spirit. Alumni were especially pleased to expose their children to the experience who in turn expressed their surprise in seeing many of the homeless who didn't appear to be in such circumstances based on appearance and conversation. We were surrounded by plenty of families and veterans who were grateful to have us on site. Besides staffing the food distribution line, we had some volunteers helping with clean up on the floor and others with cutting the pizzas when they came out of the oven.
We served approximately 150 individuals over a 2.5 hour time frame. By the end of the evening, many alumni expressed interest in attending some of the community service events that will take place in 2014. We hope to see you there as well!