In the middle of the lunch, Blu Figueroa hits inside to warm up. His food was a hot table, but the table he was sitting was almost 20 degrees below zero.
For three hours on Wednesday, January 22, Springfield’s Tower Square’s Tower Square Hot Shop served free lunches, which consisted of a panini, a hot soup and a shake. The trick: the diners had to eat outdoors in the courtyard of the main street, where the temperatures were between 10 and 15 degrees Farenheit. It was all for a good cause, as the hot table gave the food menu price on Springfield’s rescue mission.
Figueroa requested a barbecue fillet panini with chipotle and vegetables, broccoli soup and cheddar cheese and a shuffle of strawberries. He reported that the soup was nice for a 16 -degree climate.
But “when you reach the end of the soup, it starts to be harder,” he said.
Sabra Ramsdell, head of the Springfield Rescue Mission staff, said that fundraising would help support the Mission Refuge residence, meal programs, scope for other homeless people, the distribution of clothes and Educational programs.
Ramsdell said the event was organized in a couple of days. The CO -Propnetar of the hot table, John Devoie, who noticed that the forecasts predicted a cold wave, offered to re -perform the fundraising event for a day.
When Figueroa saw a publication on social media about the background collection last night, he decided to participate even with temperatures below zero. Springfield resident said he was homeless for four years. He decided to eat outdoors with a solidarity shirt.
“I wanted to try to eat food without warm, because there are those who have no coat,” he said.
Devoie said that background collection activities before the Covid-19 pandemic included a breakfast with hot coffee. Offering an outdoor lunch was a way to recover the background collection and at the same time show the addition of smoothies into the menu of the hot table, as well as the outer patio installed last fall at the premises of the Tower Square.
Hot Table, based in Springfield, has also helped the sponsoring races 5K and 10K of the Springfield rescue mission in recent years and organizes a fundraising similar to its 13 locations during the summer to benefit from Local food expenses.
Devoie said that during lunch time, people stopped at the hot table to ask -why people ate outdoors. He said that he was waiting for people to go through the main street, also ask what was happening, and this could draw attention to the Springfield rescue mission.
The non -profit shelter located at 10 Mill St. At Springfield he does not receive government funds, he said Ramsdell. Its residential program serves up to 60 men at a time, with another 43 in emergency shelters and 15 in transitional homes. Residents not only receive refuge, but also medical care, help the digital and financial education and literacy classes. The organization hopes to open a center for women soon.
It also organizes breakfasts and public lunches five days a week and three days a week organizes the Sunshine operation, which brings meals to the homeless on the streets of Springfield. In total, the mission serves around 250 meals a day, said Ramsdell.
Although the shelter does not have a calculation center, during the recent cold wave it has allowed the dining diners and lunch programs to stay a little more than usual, said Ramsdell. The group has also increased the distribution of clothes, coats and winter caps as part of the Sunshine operation.
Figueroa said that public events like this do more than just raise money for a good cause.
“I think we should do this kind of thing more often,” he said. “The community needs to unite -more.”
Translated by Damaris Pérez Pizarro