Thursday, June 1, 2000

Salvation Army canteen delivers hope

Twice a month, local business owner Jack English makes it a point to spend a few hours in downtown Corpus Christi. But he isn't there to schmooze or lobby the likes of Mayor Loyd Neal, City Manager David Garcia or Nueces County Judge Richard Borchard.
   The only appointment that brings English to the downtown streets of City Hall and the courthouse long after the 9-to-5ers have clocked out is one that brings him face-to-face with some of the neediest in the city - the hungry homeless. As a volunteer driver for the Salvation Army's mobile canteen, which is now distributing meals to the homeless year-round at night within a 20-block downtown area, English sees the face of hunger most folks don't see.
  
   The face of hunger
   "Of the 120 to 140 people we feed, 20 to 30 of them are children, some as young as 5 or 6," English said. "We can't write it off and say that it should be the parents who should be feeding these children. The last people on Earth we should punish are the children. They aren't to blame for the condition they are in and the fact that they are hungry is not of their doing. I just wish we could cover the whole town with this very worthwhile program."
   For now, the Salvation Army's goal is to sign up a large corps of volunteers to keep the Survive the Night program operational every day of the year. In the past, Survive the Night operated from November through March, its volunteers giving out hot meals, coffee, blankets, mittens and coats.
   "But hunger knows no season," said Adrian Twinney, Survive the Night program director, adding that the blistering heat of South Texas summers pose health concerns just as serious as those brought on by winter.
  
   Special delivery
   To help prevent dehydration, volunteers will be distributing plenty of cold water and cool drinks like Kool-Aid. But volunteers, said Twinney, are the key. Last year, the first time Survive the Night continued through the summer, only seven civic/church/business groups totaling 95 volunteers signed up, making only 19 mobile canteen runs through the summer possible.
   Corpus Christi's Survive the Night is only one of a few that the Salvation Army operates throughout its southern territorial area, which spans from Texas to Virginia. It is also the only one the Salvation Army operates in Texas, Twinney said.
   The local Salvation Army fed 1,658 homeless men, women and children via the mobile canteen from April through October 1999, according to Twinney's records. From November 1999 through March 2000, with the holiday season accounting for much of the volunteer surge, 16,000 mobile canteen meals were distributed. In April, Survive the Night fed 3,200 meals; 2,500 in May.
  
  
 

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