Austin Street Shelter

Austin Street Shelter's primary purpose is to offer emergency shelter and related services to the homeless person in a compassionate Christian community and is located in the Fair Park area of Dallas.  The Austin Street Shelter project is sponsored by our United Methodist Men (UMM), who invite all to help with donations of food, cooking the breakfast at church on Saturday night, and Sunday morning delivery to the Shelter when it is our assigned Sunday once a quarter. Serving in this project allows you to get involved on several different levels.  It's a fun way to get to know others in the church and those who help deliver get to see how our work impacts the Shelter and its clients.  Approximately 300-500 sandwiches are delivered each time. 

Contact person:  Ken Kolsti, 817-491-3351, kkolsti@att.net

How to serve:  There are several ways to serve, and almost all ages can participate.  Singles, couples, and families all contribute to this ministry.

• One: Help supply the food  (cartons of eggs, bananas, and $3 donation to help cover the cost of biscuits)
• Two: Cook on the Saturday night before, which may include setting up the grill and cooking the eggs, cutting the biscuits and assembling the sandwiches, or bagging the sandwiches and getting them ready for delivery.  All ages contribute.
• Three: Tweens and teens are welcome.  One way they are very helpful is to flatten out plastic grocery bags and pile them in stacks.  We offer a bag to each person so they'll have something to carry their sandwich and banana in.  Our youngest volunteers help make sure there are 25 sandwiches in a bag.  Then they count bags and report how many sandwiches we have made.
• Four: Delivery people are needed for the Sunday morning delivery crew.  We’ll leave the church at 4 am and set up at the shelter before the 6 am wake-up call.  The breakfast sandwiches are all handed out by 6:30 am and the delivery crew stops for breakfast on the way back to the church.  Multiple drivers (and helpers) are needed to carry sandwiches, cups, bananas, and the thermos cooler at the shelter. Join the delivery crew for an added fellowship time at a breakfast stop (usually at IHOP in Southlake) on the way back to church! Sign-up sheets for each portion of the project will be in the church foyer a few weeks before the next serve date. 
  

Dates we are next scheduled to volunteer: April 6-7, 2013.

History: Fellowship UMC has served at Austin Street Shelter for many years.  The Methodist Men's groups in the area take turns providing breakfast at the shelter and our congregation has committed to serving once per quarter.  Since 1983, Austin Street Shelter has been at the forefront of helping the homeless and poor in Dallas and surrounding areas.  More than 425 men, women, and children receive safe shelter here each night.  More than 100 participate in their highly effective step-up programs, including substance abuse counseling, psychotherapies, and psycho-social counseling.  Their ministry is unique in that they are a privately-funded non-profit organization, accepting no government or United Way dollars.  Each of their programs and services is provided free of charge to their clients.