Twice a month for the past 20 years, the St. Vincent de Paul Society at St. Zachary Parish in Des Plaines has made sandwiches for the hungry and homeless. Why? “Because you have to feed the homeless,” said Dave Mueller, the society’s treasurer and the designated shopper for sandwich preparation nights. Mueller has been part of the sandwich making since the beginning. No one is sure exactly how it started. “Someone wanted it and we started it,” he said. Each sandwich comes with packets of mustard and mayonnaise and a juice box. The 300 sandwiches are prepared Friday nights and then society member Paul Mika drives them down to the Port Ministries on the South Side. The Port Ministries distributes food everyday through its Bread Truck. It takes the St. Zachary crew of about six people — any more than that and “we get in each other’s way,” said Diane Rabicke — about 45 minutes to make the sandwiches. St. Zachary’s group doesn’t just help the Port Ministries. They also make sandwiches for the Franciscan House of Mary and Joseph homeless shelter once a month. And each day someone goes around to area bakeries — and once a week to a Pizza Hut — to collect leftover food that is distributed to places like Reba House in Evanston. Because they collect so much food and so often, the society purchased its own van to pick up and drop off food. There are about 25 members of St. Zachary’s St. Vincent de Paul Society and most of their funds come from the parish “poor box.”
Keeping the homeless sheltered and safe during COVID-19 spread Every night of the year, Franciscan Outreach serves 382 men and women at three shelters throughout Chicago. The homeless are one of the most vulnerable populations during the COCID-19 pandemic and trying to keep them healthy and protected has called for new ways to serve them, according to Richard Ducatenzeiler, the non-profit’s executive director.
Group holds Christmas party for the homeless Over 100 volunteers from Caridades de la Cruz offered food, clothing, showers and haircuts to 125 of the area’s homeless at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe on Dec. 21, 2019.
Dax House provides home to DePaul University’s housing-insecure students Dominique Coronel wasn’t a stranger to housing insecurity before he arrived at DePaul University. By the time he was in high school, he was having trouble finding a secure place to live. He lost the care of his parents when he was young, he said, his mother to addiction and his father to incarceration.