Numbers and activities listed below are for our fiscal year - July 1, 2011 through June 30, 2012
Number of meals served in FY 2011/2012: 152,432
Breakfast – 57,130 guests
Breakfast is served Monday through Friday - St. James' Episcopal Church, 833 W. Wisconsin Avenue. Because 60% to 70% of breakfast guestsare homeless, collaborative mental health, legal, and medical assistance is provided on site weekly.
Dinner – 13,108 guests
Dinner is served Mondays and Wednesdays at our south side site - Christian Faith Fellowship Church East, 724 S. Layton Blvd. This is our most diverse population with people of all ages and ethnic backgrounds.
Saturday Lunch – 26,580 guests
Saturday lunch is served at the above two locations and at Our Next Generation Neighborhood Center (formerly St. Andrew’s Outreach Center), 35th & Lisbon. Between 25 and 30% of guests are children. Mt. Carmel Lutheran (82nd & Center) serves a Saturday lunch on the fourth Saturday of each month.
Shelter Meal Program – 44,755 meals
August 1, 2011 marked the beginning of our Shelter Meal Program (SMP) funded by Community Advocates. The Gathering prepares all meals on location, seven days a week, for 70-100 residents of the Women’s Refuge homeless and domestic violence shelters, and Autumn West (housing for adult mentally ill). An additional residential shelter housing 12 individuals will be added in late 2012. This program is staffed by 6 part-time employees (4 cooks & 2 drivers), a part-time manager and a nutrition consultant. Community Advocates provides the funding, kitchen and equipment; the Gathering provides the staffing, food and delivery of services. We have developed a volunteer component to the program which is in its fledgling stage. This collaboration is an excellent melding of the strengths of two long standing anti-poverty agencies.
Our Next Generation – 10,859 meals
This tutoring/mentoring program at 35th & Lisbon - one of our Saturday lunch sites - serves a light meal four afternoons each week to program participants of middle school and high school age. The Gathering provides food for these meals.