Photo by Donna Thompson – The Herkimer Central School faculty and staff donated the funds raised during a monthly dress-down day to the Loaves and Fishes Warming Center. Cheryl Jory was on hand at the center’s recent board meeting to present a check for $265 on behalf of the participants. From left are Loaves and Fishes Treasurer Cory Jones, Program Director Christine Lawrence, Jory, Pastor Joelle Faulks, who serves as president; and board member Victoria Long.
By Donna Thompson
The Loaves and Fishes Warming Center, which provides people who lack housing with a warm, safe place to sleep during the winter months, is looking for a new home.
The Salvation Army has hosted the program for the past few years, allowing the center to welcome people for overnight stays in its building on North Prospect Street in Herkimer, but now it’s time for a change.
“We’ve outgrown that space,” said Christine Lawrence, program director.
“We’re kind of homeless,” said Pastor Joelle Faulks, president of Loaves and Fishes, but added that, like the story of the loaves and fishes in the Bible, the organization’s needs have been met in the past, often at the last minute.
One thing the center has not lacked is interest and support from people in the community who have stepped up to help their neighbors who are without housing.
Cheryl Jory, on behalf of the Herkimer Central School District faculty and staff, attended a recent Loaves and Fishes board meeting to present a check for $265 that had been raised during one of their monthly dress down days.
Free community dinners at local churches, a clothing closet at Trinity Lutheran Church in Herkimer that is open on a weekly basis and the opportunity to take a shower at the Herkimer Reformed Church are among the ways people have been stepping up to help.
Donations to the clothing closet – even some furniture items – were used to help a half-dozen people move into permanent housing, said Lawrence.
The organization also received word that Loaves and Fishes has been awarded $20,000 in grant funding from the Community Foundation of Herkimer and Oneida Counties. The board is awaiting word on another grant and is looking at other grant opportunities as well as waiting to hear how much funding it will receive from Herkimer County.
The center has been beneficial to the county, Lawrence said, as the county has had to spend less on out-of-county vouchers. Also, she said, having a place for people to sleep during the colder months has kept them out of residents’ backyards and off of their porches – and out of jail.
It has saved the county money it previously spent on putting people up in motels on freezing cold nights, added Faulks.
Lawrence noted that while there are several agencies in Oneida County to assist people who are trying to survive without housing, “We’re all we have for Herkimer County.”
She explained that people sheltering at the center go through an intake process when they arrive and are checked with a wand for weapons. They are given clean clothes and the clothes they came in wearing are laundered. Their possessions are stored in lockers since they are not allowed to take anything but their phones into the sleeping area.
In the morning, they were given breakfast and a meal to take with them before leaving at 7 a.m. to allow time for the host site to prepare for its regular schedule of activities.
Right now, Loaves and Fishes is looking for a place where overnight shelter can be offered during the colder months, as it has been in the past, ideally with space for other facilities and services.
Lawrence said she hopes to resume talks soon regarding one possible location.
Faulks said she, along with county and state representatives, walked through another building recently, but did not think it would meet the center’s current needs.
The center needs open space to set up cots for from 18 to 35 people, said Lawrence.
“And the hot box is huge,” said Faulks, explaining that the large tent-like structure is used to clean and sterilize the cots and bedding each day.
The group has held some fundraising events and plans to take part in the Ilion Garage Sales July 12 with a sale on South Fourth Avenue. It is also registered for the Mohawk Valley Gives event in the fall.
The Loaves and Fishes Warming Center is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that was launched in 2000. The idea grew out of a Bible study at First United Methodist Church in Herkimer and the center began providing overnight shelter in the early spring of 2023. It has operated from October through April the past two years.
For more information, visit the website at https://loavesandfisheswc.wixsite.com/herkimer or its Facebook page.
Donations can be sent to the Loaves and Fishes Warming Center, P.O. Box 666, Herkimer NY 13350.