Homeless client enters Homeless Services Center for a hot cup of coffee and bowl of cereal. Photo by Shirley Ruhe.
Just a box of cereal to you, but breakfast for a homeless person in Arlington. A-SPAN is organizing a cereal drive to replace breakfast supplies that are running low.
Gabrielle Goodson, Volunteer and Special Events Coordinator, says A-SPAN offers breakfast 365 days a year at the Homeless Services Center. At this time of the year they have a larger than usual breakfast crowd, especially when the Hypothermia Center is open.
The numbers run 25-35 for breakfast or higher when it is cold. Offering breakfast gives homeless an opportunity to get a hot cup of coffee and get warm.
A-SPAN is requesting that boxes of cereal be dropped off at the Homeless Services Center on 2020 A 14th Street N to supplement the coffee, fruit, hard boiled eggs and sometimes donated pastries offered at breakfast. They also encourage neighborhood, faith communities, schools or business groups to make this into a fun activity by organizing a cereal drive.
She said they once had kids build a cereal house with walls made out of cereal boxes. “We always need cereal.”
Cereal may be dropped off between the hours of 9 a.m.-5 p.m.