ST.
PETER'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH
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MANNA MEAL |
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Make us true servants to
all those in need, |
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Manna
Community Meal
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1976, St. Peter's has housed Manna Community Meal, a soup kitchen serving
200-300 people five mornings a week. Many who eat at Manna Meal are homeless.
Some are mentally ill or physically disabled. Others struggle to survive
on low wages from jobs that are part-time and/or temporary and which offer
no employee benefits. Manna Meal - co-sponsored by St. Peter's and the nearby Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church, and managed by Detroit's Catholic Worker community - tries to offer a respite from the harsh realities of the street. We seek to welcome each guest with respect for their human dignity and to foster an atmosphere of hospitality and peace. Volunteers come from churches, schools and other organizations throughout the metro Detroit area to help prepare and serve food. Others support the soup kitchen with financial contributions that enable us to serve a meal of hot soup, sandwiches and tea or coffee every day except Thursday and Sunday. Donations are greatly appreciated. Send checks made out to Manna Community Meal to Day House, 2640 Trumbull, Detroit, MI 48216. For more information, call Manna Community Meal at 313-963-8708 between 7:00 and 11:00 a.m. (MTWFS); or contact one of the co-managers: Marianne Arbogast (313-843-3613) or Fr. Tom Lumpkin (313-963-4539). |
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MANNA COMMUNITY MEAL November 27, 2006 Dear Friend of Manna Community Meal, Our soup kitchen is now thirty years old. (It's been that long!) Despite some significant renewal, our part of the city can still seem like a harsh desert to the people who eat here each day. Many, if not most, are homeless. Those who do have a place generally do not feel a part of what we consider to be normal, everyday life. "Can God set a table in the desert?" (Psalm 78) Long ago, God fed the Hebrews with manna in the wilderness. Today we strive to provide God's manna in this urban desert. At present, we are serving anywhere from 500-12000 bowls of soup, sandwich and cups of coffee/tea a day. Just as importantly, we try to do it in an atmosphere that takes off some of the harsh edge of the streets. We count you as part of Manna Community Meal. Your financial support has been no less significant to its operation than the 100+ volunteers who come to prepare and serve the food each monty. Without your generous help, no table could be set at Michigan and Trumbull. We hope you will continue to financially support Manna in this coming year. God's blessings, Fr Tom Lumpkin for the board of Directors of Manna Community Meal |
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MANNA COMMUNITY MEAL Nov. 28, 2005
If you watch The Oprah Winfrey Show, you may have seen a recent segment on the lives of homeless residents of Detroit, the poorest large city in the country. One of the women interviewed by Oprah’s crew – which traveled to Detroit to film the segment – was Edith, a regular guest at Manna Meal. They showed her “at home” under a freeway bridge, where she had staked out a small space and furnished it with a sofa. Of course the people from New Orleans need help, Edith told the interviewer in an off-camera conversation outside the soup kitchen – but what about us? It’s a question that resonates with us. In a year that has seen a string of major humanitarian catastrophes, there is an ongoing – and, Oprah notwithstanding, largely underreported -- catastrophe in our midst. Estimates of homelessness in Detroit alone range from 9,500 to 16,000 people. At Manna Meal, we see only a fraction of these, but we do see signs of a growing crisis. We see more homeless people in more places throughout the city. We find more people huddled around the church to sleep at night. And we meet more who, like Edith, have given up on the overstressed shelter system and settled, as best they can, into makeshift outdoor living spaces. We hope for the day when addressing the needs of the homeless in our cities will become a priority in our national budget. Meanwhile, we do what we can. We offer a place to come in out of the cold. We serve hot coffee, soup and sandwiches. We give someone a pair of dry socks. Once in a while, we can help someone get back indoors, into an adult foster care home or some other more humane living situation. All of what we do depends on your help. We are grateful for your past generosity, and we hope for your support, once again, this year. Wishing you the deep peace of the Advent and Christmas season, Marianne Arbogast MANNA COMMUNITY MEAL IS SPONSORED BY: MOST HOLY TRINITY CATHOLIC CHURCH |
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