Services
We Provide
Our Ministry
We provide a variety of services. Our ministry began with providing a few meals for those who were hungry. It rapidly expanded to include other things to meet the needs of the homeless such as those listed below, as well as other needs we discover once we get to know them personally.
- Meals
- Blankets
- Sleeping Bags
- Gloves
- Socks
- Hand warmers
- Toiletry supplies
- Soap
- Laundry detergent
Connecting the homeless with services of larger agencies that includes:
- Housing assistance
- Medical care
- Job training
- Counseling
What is Different About HFM?
Why is another agency needed to meet the needs of the homeless? Mark 14:7 (TLB) says, “You always have the poor among you, and they badly need your help.” With all the good that is being done by various agencies, we still have people living on the streets.
- Our focus is not to duplicate services but rather to find those who are not being served by other agencies and provide what help we can.
- We do not require identification or registration from the homeless in order to receive help. If there is a need that we can meet, we address it.
- The meals we serve are always hot. (No cold cuts.)
The Meals We Serve
Several agencies provide meals. Most often these include sandwiches made of cold cuts. While these are life-saving meals, there is little variety to what is being served.
We vary our menu daily, attempting to give the homeless something they don’t receive at most of the other agencies. We want to instill a sense of hope to forgotten and often ignored street people.
Our focus is in treating those we serve with dignity and respect. They are human beings and deserve to be treated as such. Most surprisingly, the majority of those we meet on the streets are not only good people but they are people who would make good neighbors and friends.
Past meals we have served include:
- Beef stew
- Cheeseburgers
- Sausage, egg, and cheese burritos
- Macaroni and cheese
- Beef and beans
- Meatballs and spaghetti
- Burritos with beef and beans
- Chili served with jalapeño cornbread
- Goulash
- Pepperoni pizza pockets
- Hotdogs
- Cheeseburger pizza pockets
- Pineapple baked beans and cornbread
- Hot chicken sandwiches
- Spaghetti and meat sauce
- Chili, cheese dogs
- Red beans and rice (New Orleans style)
- Ham and navy beans
- Lasagna
- Turkey and dressing and all the trimmings (Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and Christmas)
- Chicken and sausage gumbo (with French bread)
- Mexican platters (two kinds of enchiladas with rice and beans)
- Ham steak with two sides
- Apple and cherry pie roll ups
We are constantly increasing our menu options.
Meals are homemade in our kitchen. Our standard is not to serve anything we would not eat ourselves. We have registered with the Houston Health Department and have taken the meal sanitization and safety course they offer called “Charitable Feeding Food Service Training.”
Additionally, each meal typically includes various packs of crackers like peanut butter crackers and hard candy or chocolate for dessert. The meals are simple but filling. Servings are large for we know that the meal from HFM may be the only meal they receive that day.
One phenomenon we have witnessed is a significant number of the homeless don’t eat their meal when we serve it but save it for night when they are very hungry and have nothing to eat. It is difficult for most of us to comprehend what it is like not to know where our next meal is coming from or when we will get it.
How Are Our Services Provided?
In a typical month, we serve about 300 meals. Meals are homemade in our kitchen. Our standard is not to serve anything we would not eat and enjoy ourselves. We have registered with the Houston Health Department as well as have taken the meal sanitization and safety course they offer called “Charitable Feeding Food Service Training.”
Additionally, each meal typically includes various packs of crackers like peanut butter crackers as well as hard candy or chocolate for dessert. The meals are simple but filling. Servings are large for we know that the meal from HFM may be the only meal they receive that day. One phenomenon we have witnessed is a significant number of the homeless don’t eat their meal when we serve it but save it for night when they are very hungry and have nothing to eat.
There is a portion of the homeless population that will not avail themselves to government funded agencies. There may be many reasons for this. They may have an active drug addiction, untreated mental illness, or fear of violence that cause them to be wary of large agencies that attract a large number of clients.
We don’t have a storefront or shelter. Other agencies provide these centralized services. HFM goes into the streets to find those who are hungry or need supplies we can provide. We pack hot meals in an insulated backpack or in insulated containers that are transported by a wagon.
During a recent ice storm, we found a number of homeless people who declined to the enter warming centers the city opened. They planned to sleep on the streets—often with only a thin blanket for protection from the cold—even though the temperature plunged to seventeen degrees for two nights in a row. Most cited a fear of crowds or of violence as why they did not take advantage of these temporary shelters.
Wearing shoes equipped with ice grippers, we sought out those with no shelter, providing a hot meal, sleeping bags, winter coats, blankets, gloves, hand warmers, and socks. If we didn’t step up and help, these individuals would have spent the night in subfreezing temperatures with little or no protection from the cold.