We Remain Open!

Catholic Worker Hospitality House remains open to serve those most in need in our community. The “shelter in place” order recently issued by area county governments, which has closed many events and businesses, does not apply to social service providers, so we are free to continue feeding the hungry and sheltering the homeless. However, we have changed how we operate our dining room and homeless shelter to respond to the very real dangers posed by the corona virus pandemic.

Until further notice we will no longer be a seated dining room, but will only serve food To Go. We will continue to offer our usual food choices: oatmeal, fruit, soup, casseroles, sandwiches, etc. The only difference is they will be pre-packaged in to go containers to limit the risk of spreading the virus to guests, volunteers, or staff. We will also continue offering hot coffee, milk, and water to our guests.

We will continue shelter operations, but will be reducing the number of guests at the shelter from 8 to 6 to provide more space between guests. We feel that closing the shelter at this time would just be putting people on the streets, making a bad situation worse.

We have increased our regular cleaning procedures. We are now cleaning all surfaces with the bleach-water mixture recommended by health officials before, during, and after our serving times. We are also washing our hands constantly.

At present we are continuing our shower services, but may have to limit or stop that service if it poses too great a risk of spreading the virus to our guests.

Our boarding houses will continue to operate as usual, although with more emphasis placed on social distancing and cleaning.

We regret having to take the above precautions, but we do it with the best long-term interests of those we serve in mind. These new procedures will remain in place until health officials feel it is once again safe for folks to congregate.

We are very thankful for the support we continue to receive from St. Bruno’s Catholic Church where our dining room and shelter are located. At a time when other churches are closing their church halls to meal programs and outside meetings, St. Bruno’s continues to live out their deep and abiding Catholic faith by being open to our “serving the body of Christ in our midst.”

During this time we ask for your continued prayers for those we serve, for our ongoing service projects, and for all those already exposed to the virus and who will be exposed to the virus in the coming days and months. We are living in extraordinary times, may our faith always continue to guide us.