You did it

This TRULY is the place the community built.

Its pretty words, but the thing is, we mean it. It really does take a village to care for the people who have fallen through the cracks and because of all of you, we get to carry on doing just that.

1,464 people donated!!

The post was shared 2,000 times!

These numbers are freaking crazy!!!

...and the numbers are still rolling in, so it is likely that number will continue to climb. Mr Jacob is working on a project to put each and every name of the people who donated onto a plaque for the wall of our new building. There will be no monetary hierarchy...just a list of everyone who made the impossible happen.

Usually, that list on the plaque is short, and the time it takes to help each person is very long. Here, we have the freedom to help people quickly and efficiently because we do not have all of the hoops to jump through due to accepting government funding. The people we serve walk away feeling connection and they are embraced...they have hope...a thing most people come to us without.

I think this is why people are so invested in this place. The people we serve trust us and they are comfortable here because they literally built this lace with their blood, sweat and tears. The people that donate get it. They either understand that our services work differently and they are vital, or they have been here and witnessed the little miracles that happen daily.

The hard work of working in such an inefficient space has brought us all closer together. Its never been easy for us, but it wasn’t supposed to be. I remember the beginning days, when Miss Rhonda and I used to cook the hot meals. I’d cook half here in my kitchen and she the other half in her tiny home kitchen. I would bring her ingredients and she'd have every single counter covered in biscuits and she'd be making salad at her cramped kitchen table and there'd be a pot on every burner. She would pack it all up in her little car and lug it over to our house. The people already standing inline would help her carry it in and that’s when they knew we were about to start serving.

The line of people seemed to be never-ending and we'd greet all of them with questions about their life when they stepped up to the kitchen table to get their helpings. We prided ourselves on knowing our people. We'd grab a plate ourselves when we were done serving and sit down beside them. Our pot belly pigs would be snuffling at everyone's feet under the tables, cleaning up the scraps and getting lots of love and back scratches. After the meal was over, there'd be more people than necessary moving the heavy tables, stacking the chairs, washing dishes, scrubbing the bathrooms, carrying our couches and furniture and turning it back into our home...cleaner than before we started! It was a TREMENDOUS amount of work, but it brought us all together.

We have done this beautiful work together! We have fed so many people!

When COVID hit, it felt like we were feeding half of Rockford! It was sobering to see people newly experiencing food insecurity. It showed us exactly how important this work is...especially when people were dying because there was no drug and alcohol treatment available. We stepped up to the pate in huge ways and continue to excel at getting anyone who wishes to turn their life around off the streets and off drugs within 24 hours of asking for help while also providing everything they need to begin their journey in recovery including safe, drug-free shelter until they gain employment and their own housing.

We are providing a tremendous service to the community. We are a lighthouse for the lost and we are empowering those in need, one sack lunch at a time.

Everyone is sooooo excited about the move! We will finally have adequate space! We will have offices WITH DOORS ON THEM (we work at the dining room table and out of my bedroom, currently, and they are in the same room). We will finally have a large parking lot, which we can do outdoor events at in the summer. We will be able to serve hot meals again!!! There are showers in the basement even, though they do need a serious remodel.

Before we can move in, we have to go to City Hall and get a Special Use Permit. We are currently not compliant with our existing SUP because we were required to brick up our huge roll-top receiving door, which is the one thing that IS actually efficient about the current building, and put in a small person-sized door. We were also required to have a dumpster enclosure, but there was nowhere we could actually put one because our current building takes up the entire lot aside from the courtyard and the health dept requirements would not permit the dumpster enclosure in the courtyard.

The new building is a far better fit and Tyson and Billy Architects, who have so generously donated their valuable services, believe it will be an easy transition and don’t anticipate any issues with getting the permit. That being said, we will have many remodel projects to bring the building up to current standards. The building was built in 1948 (I was misinformed when I stated 1958 in a previous post) and though it has been impeccably maintained, it needs to be adapted to our specific needs. Furthermore, when a building had been in use for a specific use for so many decades, many variances and "passes" are issued to save the owners form expensive upgrades, but when the ownership changes hands, all of those variances end and everything must be brought up to current code.

We have a long road ahead of us before we will be in full operation at the new building, but goodness are we excited! We have overcome so much, so we are completely confident that we will get through this, too. When the time comes, we will call on you to show your support at City Hall, because this is the place the community built.

We, of course, were fully aware that there would be more expenses after acquiring the building, but the tragedy that struck our generous benefactor and her family put the entire dream at risk...and we pulled off the Hail Mary play!! You all saved the day!!!

We do not ask for anything more of you all. You have done enough. This place runs on the jars of peanut butter you drop off, the hand-me-down winter coats you bring us, $50 monthly donations and the volunteer hours of many, many, servant-hearted individuals who work so hard to be of service to those who have lost hope. We do, however, hope that maybe there are some businesses out there that perhaps weren't able to donate in the emergency window we had to have he funds in, or maybe it will just trickle in and we will always have just enough to pull each seemingly impossible feat off. Whatever the case, we know that we will get through whatever comes next. Look what we have done together!! We have made miracles happen time and time again. You are all so amazingly beautiful souls and each person has done their part to keep the dream alive!!!

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU !!!!